


Buried Treasure

by raindrop_rouge



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: (but it's all in Eren's head), Adventure, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Childhood Friends, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Oblivious Eren Yeager, Oblivious Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Slice of Life, SnK Minibang 2016, implied Hange/Petra, many mentions of fairytales, no one has a summer job, one mention of alcohol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-09-05
Packaged: 2018-08-12 10:38:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7931467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raindrop_rouge/pseuds/raindrop_rouge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One day, it’s a book, another, a movie, and the next, any well-known fairytale or myth. By the time they reach university, Levi is pretty sure his childhood, best, -and basically only- friend Eren Jaeger has reenacted every story out there, in addition to of a few of his own invention. </p><p>Not on stage or on the big screen, as he might have dreamed of, no - just in one of his never ending games of make-pretend. </p><p>When they unexpectedly come across buried treasure (or, you know, someone’s lost jewelry), Eren’s imagination runs wilder than ever before. But Levi is beginning to wish that Eren could appreciate reality -their time spent together- as much as the colorful world inside his head.</p><p>Written for the SnK minibang 2016, a big thanks to the mods!!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Art by the lovely @nayawata on tumblr, found here  
> http://nayawata.tumblr.com/post/149801197764/one-of-my-snkminibang-piece-with-raindrop-rouge
> 
> Art by @crafty-scrafty coming soon!!

“Levi! Levi, you can’t just stay on the side of the river! You’re the evil sea monster, you live _in_ the river! You need to join me in here so I can fight you,” Eren shouted from the rock he was precariously balancing on, cupping his mouth. As if Levi needed that to hear him. His voice carried way too easily, for a kid.

“Mama doesn’t like it when my boots get muddy,” Levi replied, shoulders hunched down, as he kicked a pebble into the water.

Eren played fair, they took turns impersonating the villain, but Levi always felt happier when they _both_ got to be good guys. Or both bad guys. It was more fun to be on the same team as Eren.

“Then just take them off, silly!” Eren burst into a fit of delighted giggles. “The water is so nice and cold!”

There really wasn’t any reason for him to be shouting. What the two children called their “river” was merely a small stream running in the back of Grisha Jaeger’s lands, that Levi could access by cutting through a small patch of woods. The only sounds surrounding them were that of the tranquilly flowing water, and of the light summer wind breezing through said woods. It was a very standard forest in Levi’s opinion, full of birch, oak, and chestnut trees, whose colors shifted with the seasons. But Eren found endless joy in it. Learning all of the names of the plants had been a part of those joys, from when Eren had had a Forest Elf phase (“ _Every good elf knows all things of nature, Levi!_ ”).

Levi never needed that much coaxing to join into Eren’s games. First of all, he was a smart kid, and smart kids know when resistance is futile; secondly, this neighborhood kid was fun, pure and simple. Levi learned to catch glimpses of worlds only Eren could see. It was exciting: Eren sometimes opened and closed imaginary doors so quickly, it was like he was guiding Levi, as they leapt through dimensions and universes, just the two of them.

He’d admit that his own exuberance was far less remarkable than Eren’s. It was almost unexpected for them to get along. But this was never an issue in their mothers’ minds: they had decided their sons would be playmates, and let them meet up almost every day over the summer. They often stayed outside right up until the end of the afternoon. Then, whichever parent was present would come looking for them.

Or rather, they could have, as Eren’s excited squeals would tell them exactly where to find them. The thing was, Carla Jaeger’s voice carried even more than her son’s, and she was generally the only one home. So really, the boys’ playdates usually ended with Carla yelling it was time to head back. Levi and Eren would run back to the Jaeger’s spacious home, generally to enjoy some of Carla’s baking. There they’d wait, until Kuchel finally got home, after another long day fighting tooth and nail to climb the corporate ladder in the central business district, an hour or so away from their quiet town. This was the opposite of a problem for the two boys, who’d be too deeply engaged in another imaginary fight to give it much thought.

~~

As they grew up, Eren and Levi continued to play by their river. Not much changed overall, except maybe the size of their playground (though, out of habit probably, they always ended up straying back to their old spots). Their mothers traded in shouting for texting at the end of the day. This however proved to be a lot less threatening, so the successful effect of those “come home. dinner.” texts widely depended on Levi’s ability to drag Eren home.

Many stories were reenacted by that river, day after day. Eren’s heroes changed. Some were entirely made up, inspired by new films and cartoons from all over the world, from myths and fairytales from all times and places. Levi’s life was punctuated by calls of “Levi! Imagine if…” and “what ifs”. Levi never questioned those calls. Whenever Eren slipped into a new world, he left the door ajar behind him for Levi to follow – and he never gave Levi any serious reason to hesitate.

If Levi were being honest, he was Levi’s only friend for the longest time.

That was until they began university.

~~

At the end of their first year at university, nothing but a long, relaxing summer awaited Eren and Levi.

 As per usual, they’d taken only one car to get to their university, and so it was part of the plan that they would be driving home together as well.

What was not part of the plan, however, was that Levi would be the one at the wheel. Again.

They normally took turns, but Levi had received a text from Carla strictly forbidding him to let Eren drive the day before. The text was unnecessary. Levi already knew.

“Levi!” Eren bounded up to him, his bags already stuffed into the car. “Uhm, thanks for agreeing to drive us home this term again, I dunno why mom got so serious about that.”

Levi sighed after slamming the trunk shut on his own stuff.

“You finally watched that French film with the crazy taxi driver.” He paused, searching for the title, which turned out to be embarrassingly obvious. “Oh yeah. ‘Taxi’. Anyway, you haven’t shut up about it in two weeks. Your mom knows that if you get your hands on a car, you’re gonna get yourself killed. _And so do I_.” He glared at Eren, challenging the taller boy to contest that fact.

Eren simply blinked back, with his wide, innocent eyes.

“Levi!”

Levi held back a groan. Eren just did the thing. The thing where Levi’s words of reason did reach his brain going in through one ear, but said words were then processed and dumped onto the “to discard” pile, and proceeded to fly out the other ear immediately.

“I was thinking, maybe we should take some back roads on our way home this time,” Eren babbled on excitedly. He was met with Levi’s unimpressed stare. “We won’t run into anyone… So we can see how fast you can go?”

Levi had to bite the inside of his lip to hold back a smile. He _really_ should disapprove, but a different answer was more tempting.

“Probably faster than you would.”

A few moments later, they were speeding off to Eren’s screams about how it was completely unfair, his mother wouldn’t let him drive for a while now, so he wouldn’t be able to take on Levi’s challenge for a long time.

Soon enough, those screams dissolved into shrieks of laughter. Levi wasn’t even going all that fast, but what truly was had never really mattered all that much to Eren.

And his playing along always put that brilliant grin on Eren’s face. So Levi always made sure he did.

~~

To Levi’s surprise (and huge relief, which was also a surprise in and of itself), they had both been accepted at the nearest city’s university, Rose U. They joined completely different programs however, which made them live on different campuses, which in turn led to only infrequent meet-ups.

Eren had dreamed of studying drama. _Of course_ he’d wanted to act. Though sometimes Levi thought he could have made an amazing writer or film director, or anything related, but it’s not like Levi actually knew anything about those jobs. Unfortunately for Eren, his mother had strictly refused to let him apply to that course. Carla was usually a kind and understanding mother; but when it came to Eren’s future, her deeply buried terror of her son not succeeding brilliantly in life emerged. Her attempts at hammering “it won’t get you a real job” into Eren’s thick skull led to countless nights of fighting (which often ended with Eren in tears on Levi’s doorstep). But where the mother and son were equally stubborn, Carla had more experience. And parental authority.

So eventually, Eren had decided to study political science. “Because being a politician is the closest I’ll get to becoming an actor,” he’d explained to a bewildered Levi.

Fortunately, it actually turned out for the best, with Eren growing passionate about certain subjects and joining some prestigious clubs, including models of governmental organizations.

“I feel like I’m getting the chance to do something big, you know?” he’d told Levi on the phone one night, “Imagine- ” _that would be the word echoing around Levi’s skull on his death bed_ “Imagine, me, getting access to all these big political secrets, I’d have the power to take part in plans that will change the face of the world as we know it!”

Not feeling Levi’s hype though the phone, reason being there was none to feel, Eren repentantly changed his tone. “Ok, ok, fine, don’t worry, I actually _am_ learning about procedures and crap, and I know everything is a hell of a lot more complicated than in spy movies.” Levi could practically hear him pout. But Levi knew the pout was wiped away by a smile, as Eren also told him about his university friends.

“I hope you get to meet them soon, you’d really like them!”

For some reason Levi struggled to believe those words. But he assured Eren he would. Of course he would, if it could make Eren happy.

As for Levi, he’d chosen to major in economics, the main reason being it was a rather wide topic and he had no idea what he wanted to do later. His mother was extremely pleased to hear he’d be going to university at all. She was surprised he wouldn’t want to go straight for English literature, given how much time he spent with his nose in a book. What she didn’t understand was that he only did so in (constantly crushed) hope of catching up with Eren, and understanding all of his references. And in the end, it would have been frustrating to study English lit and still somehow know less about literary movements and genre analyses than Eren.

He got along well enough with a few people on his course. Isabel, a girl with frizzy red hair that would probably still stick up if she removed her pigtails, and her boyfriend Farlan had taken a liking to him out of seemingly nowhere. A genius kid with long blond hair recommended a few books to him. Levi couldn’t remember his name, but he knew that Eren would love him. But as much as he appreciated these people, he never made much of an effort to see them out of class.

~~

Eren and Levi spent a lot less time together than they used to, but they certainly were still in touch enough to keep their mothers amused. The boys no longer reacted to Kuchel’s joking comments that they’d grow old together, and even less to Carla’s dead serious tone when she declared that if they weren’t careful, they were going to merge into one bipolar identity (though this had scared Eren when they were kids, and he’d cried for days about how he wanted to see Levi without making him disappear, leaving Levi very confused).

Eren had once replied, unfazed, to Kuchel’s taunting, as him and Levi carried on playing some old video game.

“We’re like the two characters in Taylor Swift’s Fairytale song.”

Levi had answered without missing a beat, “You’re thinking of Mary’s Song. And I win this round.”

He’d turned to Eren, expecting the unmistakable if-I-lost-it-was-probably-the-game’s-fault pout, but instead he’d found him eyes twinkling in hilarity, game all but forgotten.

“Since when are _you_ such a Taylor Swift expert?” Eren’s shoulders were shaking in laughter.

“That’s no proof I’m an expert, it’s just proof I had to endure _your_ Taylor Swift phase. And that I’ll never be able to forget,” Levi had shot back.  

Eren had grumbled at that, and so, feeling charitable and hiding his amusement, Levi had tried conceding.

“Well, maybe that _was_ the song she should’ve entitled ‘Fairytale’. It was about two people growing up, falling in love, choosing to stay together, and never ever meeting anyone else.” He snorted. “That’s pretty much 99% of fairytales. Also, 99% of Taylor Swift songs, so I guess she did have to choose one.”

Eren had gasped, a long, offended gasp. Not on Taylor Swift’s behalf.

“A fairytale needs more than two people leisurely growing up and then realizing ‘oh, look at that, we’re in love’! No, no, no, fairytales are all about _structure_ , Levi, structure.  See, traditional fairytales are built around a five pillar narrative, the initial situation,” he held up one finger, “the disruptive element, the adventures, the denouement or resolution, and finally the final situation.”

He had counted off his fingers as he went along. As he always did.

That was far from the first time Levi had heard his speech on fairytales, and it was far from the last. Eren didn’t only dive into grand theatrical tirades for fairytales. His head was filled with galleries of different genres, and he was more than happy to invite people in for a visit. Fantasy, thriller, adventure, tragedy, Levi had heard all of the speeches more times than he could count. And every time Levi demonstrated any hesitance as to what a genre might entail, Eren was ready.

Levi especially enjoyed the end of Eren’s fairytale speech, which was Eren’s personal opinion on the topic. It generally ran along the same lines.

“So yeah, basically the fairytale genre has tropes that appear a lot, that still do, even, despite how old the genre is, but no element is actually essential as long as the five pillars are identifiable. It’s almost a shame… like, variety is great and all, but some tropes I could read forever, you know?” His bright eyes would sparkle as he’d speak his next words, proud of his opinion, never stopping to consider that someday, someone might actually disagree.

“Fairytales that use true love’s kiss as resolution are the best, for example. I mean, everyone remembers those! It seals in the romance that was in the background of the adventures since the beginning, and -” at this point, it always looked as if the sun backlit his eyes “- and it usually means there was some dark curse, or some form of magic throughout the story, which, honestly, is the best anyone could ask for in a story.” His voice carried no shame or self-consciousness as he’d conclude, “So I do want my fairytales to include a true love’s kiss.”

As a timid child, Levi had been far too in awe of Eren’s knowledge to make fun of him. As a quiet teenager, having already had time to memorize the speech, he felt he’d missed his window to do so.

As a first year university student, Levi absolutely hated his teen self for even considering mocking Eren. How couldn’t he feel anything but respect for the love Eren held for his stories? The stories themselves, but also the information around them, obviously meant so much to him. Levi decided that if he could give Eren a good listener, he gladly would.

Any decent friend would be pleased to see their best friend speak so freely about their passions. Sometimes, it did feel like Eren was constantly running on too much sugar, but then again, sometimes they needed him to have the energy and enthusiasm for two.

(“Our friendship is like an efficient set of a motor and breaks,” Eren had once read out from a magazine, having finished a profound personality quiz entitled “What kind of friendship do you and your best friend have?”

Levi had wrinkled his nose, and declared he didn’t appreciate the oversimplification and that those tests were always stupid. Eren had laughed, and teased him by giggling “But it’s true though! And you know, sometimes I even appreciate it when you slow me down”, and Levi had left it at that, cheeks warm and heartbeat unsteady.)

 

As they found themselves on the road, leaving their first year at university behind them, hearing Eren’s familiar chatter was making Levi feel right at home already.

~~

They made it back to their hometown, Trost, early evening. It would’ve normally still been bright out, but the weather so far had been particularly awful this year. Kuchel had warned Levi that for the past few weeks, she’d seen nothing but rain, thunder, storms, and more rain.

The landscape passing by as they neared their neighborhood would have given him that information anyway. Under the curtain of shifting gray clouds, trees from the forest edge had been knocked down. The quaint little homes that should have been boasting flourishing gardens at that time of the year had only mud and beaten down bushes to show off. The air was overall a lot cooler than Levi had anticipated, and the humidity was unexpected.

Yet, it felt good to be back in their small suburban town. Levi was looking forward to spending more time with his mother, and also with Eren – as exhausting as he may have been sometimes.

Eren seemed willing to hang out until later, but Levi dropped him off straight at home, knowing Carla would have wanted to see her only child as soon as possible, after being apart for a few months.

The next day, the gray clouds had taken on a wispy aspect. They were light enough that Levi could’ve guessed where the sun was behind them. That apparently constituted nice weather enough for Eren, who texted Levi to meet up at their “usual spot by the river”.

_The river_. Levi liked that they’d probably be calling their small stream that forever.

He liked less that the small grassy slope descending to it had turned extremely slippery.

Coming closer, Levi noted that this was probably the closest the stream was ever going to be to an actual river. The rain had inflated the water levels, which now completely covered the pebbly riverbank he was used to. Instead, he’d have to slush through mud to walk along the stream. He scowled. He’d grown to dislike mud even more than his mother.

When Eren arrived, he ran down his own little hill to meet Levi, as if he wasn’t risking falling flat on his bum. But before Levi could even admonish him for it, his animated chatter filled the air.

He told Levi all about his first evening back home. Apparently Carla had wanted to hear _everything_ about his classes and his friends, if he’d chosen his classes for next year, if he’d been eating properly (no student style meal would ever qualify as a ‘yes’ for Carla), even though Eren kept her well updated all year round. Levi was happy to listen, Kuchel having only gotten home too late, and too tired, for her and Levi to speak much. A cup of tea shared in silence was as good as any mother-son bonding moment in the Ackerman household anyway.

Eren was incapable of standing still as he talked, so Levi walked along as Eren hopped from stone to stone in the river. Levi had given up on telling him that was dangerous years ago.

Suddenly, Eren let his sentence drop off. Levi didn’t need to turn his head as he’d been staring at his friend the whole time anyway, so he watched as Eren’s brows furrowed, as he stared at his feet.

Oh, no, not exactly his feet.

Something between the two rocks before him, where Levi couldn’t see, had caught his gaze.

“Eren? Earth to Eren,” _yeah fat chance,_ “What is it?” Levi waited patiently for Eren to answer. In the meantime, he prayed it wasn’t some dead animal, because he didn’t feel like dealing with Eren’s sudden bawling.

Eren held up a finger in Levi’s direction, without looking his way. Levi knew that meant he would not be acknowledging anything Levi said or did until that finger was put down again. It was a pretty great system they’d put into place when they were teenagers, when Eren was as distractible as ever, and Levi had been short in patience.

Then Eren squatted down slowly, very slowly, head tilted to the side, eyes unwavering from the point he’d been staring at. _Oh no it_ is _an animal_ , Levi could have wailed.

He almost flinched when Eren suddenly jumped into the water, shoes, socks, pants and all, hands shooting out.

“Eren what the fuck?”

“Levi!” Eren shouted, “I found something, it’s shiny, like goldish-shiny! Oh my god don’t move, I don’t want to get too excited too fast but I think it might be buried treasure!”

Uhm. So much for not getting excited too fast.

But then Eren’s jaw dropped open as he stood up from the -dirty- water. He mechanically stretched his hands out to Levi, who was hit with understanding.

_It might be buried treasure_.

Not much of it, and _might_ was still the key word given how broken and mud-incrusted the pieces were, but still.

In Eren’s wide palms were small rocks, out of which bits of gold were peeking out. Some bits were thicker than others. One Levi could guess was part of a ring, and another had such delicate strands of gold interlaced, he assumed it was some other piece of jewelry. Around Eren’s fingers were hooked what might have been golden chains or bracelets, but rock had cemented around such long parts of them that it was as good a guess as any. There seemed to be a decent amount of valuables in Eren’s hands, but that was only presuming they weren’t all broken into pieces. And that there was more than actually met the eye.

All in all, it was incredible Eren had spotted a glimmer of gold at all.

It wasn’t a bad representation of how Eren always saw the bright side in everything. The thought popped into Levi’s mind unbidden.

Eren stared at his own hands for a moment longer before rushing back over to Levi. Well, he tried to, but the water put up unanticipated resistance, and he ended up doing a weird bunny hop to get back over to Levi as quickly as possible.

Levi shook his head, before jerking back as Eren stuck his findings right under his nose. “Look!” he exclaimed.

“I could see just fine when you were just five steps away, dumbass,” Levi said. He was realizing he was wrong as he said it though. From here, he could notice that some thicker bits of gold carried engravings, and wait, were those precious stones? It was hard to ascertain anything when it was all coated in murky water droplets and mud at best.

That last fact did nothing to tamper Eren’s excitement.

“Levi, really look though, rocks had time to form around a lot of these,” he rolled pieces around in his palm, “this might be super old, imagine the lifestyle of the people who first owned these? And today, we get to find it all?”

Levi was about to correct Eren by mentioning only _he_ found anything, but his voice was blocked by the inexplicable happiness he’d felt when Eren said “ _we_ ”. He missed his chance to speak before Eren rambled on.

“Oh my gosh, we’re like pirates in this moment, finally getting our hands on sunken treasure!” He walked off, leaving Levi to follow him. When did he not?

“We’ve come so far and defeated so many enemies and monsters, and here we stand proudly, triumphant at last!”

_Ah, there he goes again_. Levi wasn’t sure how to join in.

“You mean like in Tim Powers ‘On Stranger Tides’ or something?”, he tried.

Eren burst out laughing, not a nasty or condescending laugh in the slightest.

“No! The main ‘treasure’ in that book is the Fountain of Youth, so unless you wanna drink from the river, nah, not like that. Though if you want, you can be like the protagonist, like, not even a pirate to begin with. You could say he was only faithful to his goal, not to any particular side.” He tilted his head to the side as he considered Levi. “Hmm. You could be that kind of protagonist.”

Levi let himself smirk. “I imagine you’d know where your loyalties lay from the start?”

“You bet I would!” Eren grinned, then walked back towards Levi. “Anyway, I was thinking more classic, like Treasure Island.”

“Huh, so it’s not a good pirate classic if there’s no gold then?” Levi didn’t think he’d heard the Pirate Speech before.

Going by the frown on Eren’s face and the concentration on his brow, there wasn’t one yet.

“I never said that!” he said quickly. “I mean, I might have a preference, but… eehhh...”

Levi watched as he visibly flipped through the library permanently stored in his brain.

“Ok first of all, there’s no such thing as a ‘pirate genre’ really. And if there were, I’m pretty sure all it would take is just one pirate, for a story to fit in. But the author would be free to define ‘pirate’ in their work however they’d like anyway.” Eren rolled his eyes. “Generally speaking though, famous piracy tales come under the historical, adventure-slash-action, and even the fantasy genre. And that last one’s not even a recent trend, the romanticizing of piracy instantly came hand-in-hand with supernatural elements and – wait where was a going with this?”

Eren blinked himself back into the world around him as Levi fought back a chuckle. It was preventing him from getting out the “you babble too much, hell if I know” he was thinking.

Well. Maybe he didn’t really think that.

Instead, all he said was “I’m just trying to figure out what us being pirates entails.”

Eren’s eyes took on a sly gleam. “I’d totally be the captain.”

“Would you now?” Levi raised an eyebrow.

“Yep!” Eren nodded vehemently.

“What if I wanted to be Captain too?” Levi asked. He didn’t really, but hey, he wanted to see what Eren would say to that.

“I’ll challenge you! Gimme your crew and your treasure!”

Levi somehow doubted any pirate ever said “gimme”, but why not. Eren always knew better anyway.

“You’re the one holding all the treasure,” Levi stated.

“Levi!”

“Okay, fine, I’ll try again.”

“No, wait, don’t move.” Eren put down his ‘treasure’ carefully, and ran into the woods – almost falling flat on his face a couple of times – and rushed back with two long sticks.

“Ain’t no Captain who can’t swordfight.” He threw one over. “En guarde, Levi.”

~~

 A growl from Eren’s stomach finally told the boys it was probably time to head home. It was a good thing Eren’s stomach was attuned to Carla’s meal times, or he could get into some serious trouble. As Eren went to pick up his catch of the day, Levi realized they should probably talk about what they were going to do with it.

Was it even worth bringing home at all? What did he and Eren even know about gold anyway, how could they tell it was even real? It might have been bits of plain metal decorated by some weird hobbyist. And then they would have been unsatisfied with results, and chucked it all into the river. According to some strange videos on youtube, there were people who’d do that.

Eren caught his skeptical gaze as he started walking. “Don’t worry, don’t worry, it’s ours, but I’ll keep it because I can already tell you don’t want to touch any of this.”

Oh. That was considerate. Levi had nothing to reply to that.

“Though maybe we should get rid of all of this.”

Levi was taken aback by that statement. But he wasn’t going to disagree. “Yeah, it probably doesn’t have any value.”

Eren frowned at that. “No! This is definitely gold. And gold is valuable,” he insisted.

“How would you know it’s not just some strange alloy that looks like gold?” Levi crossed his arms. Eren couldn’t possibly have a good answer to that.

“It… just… Ugh I’m pretty sure it’s gold ok?” Eren sputtered.

_You have no way of knowing_ , Levi thought, but he didn’t feel like _forcing_ Eren to throw away something that entertained him either. Ideally, Eren would realize that it was all unnecessary clutter on his own and put it right back where he found it soon enough.

“What I was thinking,” Eren continued, suddenly calm again, “was that maybe this treasure is cursed.” He looked at Levi very seriously. “Maybe that’s why it suddenly appeared here, before us, after all these years. Some cursed family discovered the jewels’ secret, tossed them out, and the storm carried them to their next cursed owners. Us.”

There was no way Levi could ever spook Eren, but it was always worth a try.

“Or maybe it’s been buried here our entire lives, and now it knows exactly how to curse us, the treasure has revealed itself.” He tried to look as grave as possible. “We’re doomed now, Eren.”

“But - ” Eren protested.

“Game over.”

“No, we - ”

“You just had to pick it up, didn’t you.”

“LEVI!” Eren screamed.

Levi burst out laughing. Eren loved his games; Levi loved watching him get caught up in them. While Levi was easily affected by day-to-day stress, Eren so easily left reality behind. Once he set his mind on a picture he liked, he could stay blissfully focused on it. Levi had to admit, it was inspiring.

He stopped laughing when Eren threatened to pellet him with the rocks in his hands.

Eren tried again, once they’d both calmed down. “Maybe it’s cursed because it travelled all the way from a sacred Egyptian tomb, tomb it never should have left.”

Levi unhesitatingly whacked him across the top of his head. “I’m gonna have to stop you right there. Where do I even start? Maybe at the part where science proved no Egyptian curse was real.”

“Right. Yeah, I’ll give you that,” Eren muttered.

The boys were trudging through the woods on the way home slowly. This path was a detour for Levi, but he didn’t mind. He watched as Eren stared at the trinkets in his hands intently, as if he could force them into recounting all their secrets.

He should have tried harder to convince Eren to leave it all behind. Eren was going to obsess. He’d want to learn everything about his findings, how the pieces ended up in the river, who they belonged to, how long ago. And what were the odds he’d ever find out? His summer would go by a lot more peacefully without the gold.

Yet, what could’ve Levi done? Stayed silent, and pretend there was a real chance of the treasure being cursed? As stupid as it sounded, even in his own head, he knew he could’ve easily manipulated Eren that way. Just as well as he knew he couldn’t stand the idea of doing something like that. No, he’d always let Eren hear what he truly thought, and let him make his own decisions.

And if he were to let Eren know what he thought…

“Eren.”

“Yeah?” Even though they were walking side by side, Eren seemed startled, drawn from wherever he’d launched himself just by staring at bits of rock.

“Maybe we should bring your collection to the police. These might have been stolen and hidden a while ago.”

“Hidden in a riverbed?” Eren’s lips quirked up.

“Don’t play cheeky.” He raised an eyebrow, challenging Eren to say more. Eren quickly looked away. Which was a bit odd, but fine with him. “If we do anything else, and it turns out this was all stolen, we might get into trouble.”

“There’s no way this is still actively searched for, Levi!” Eren had whipped his head back fiercely. “Come on, this is ours now, why would you want to get rid of it?”

“To be safe! And even if it isn’t stolen or anything, if we hand it over to the police, and they sell it off, we can get a percentage of the price. Like a finder’s fee. Probably.”

“But…” Levi watched as Eren struggled.

“Spit it out.”

Eren glared at him. “That makes for a terribly lame story! ‘Oh yeah I found some buried treasure, so I gave it to the police. No idea what happened to it after!’ Great! Same goes for just selling it off online, I’m warning you.” He took a deep breath.

Levi waited. They were both prone to short outbursts.

“See, I think finding this gold makes for a great beginning. I wanna see where this might take us. Maybe we could get a jeweler to look at it for us. They might be able to tell, like… what period’s style this is? Or would an antiquarian be better?”, he wondered aloud.

Levi bit back a dark comment on how real life was unfortunately, for the most part, a lot lamer than the worlds in Eren’s head, and he didn’t believe they’d be taken very far anyway.

Eren took Levi’s silence for the beginning of a concession. He pushed further.

“Come on,” he said, dragging out the ‘on’. “Let’s try and turn this into an adventure!”

Levi could feel the headache building up already. Of course Eren wanted an adventure. An exciting tale, a great story to tell later. Levi, on the other hand, really wanted a stress-free holiday, each day starting without a plan, free to run around all day or just relax at home. And he wasn’t quite willing to give up on that vacation yet.

“Define ‘adventure’,” he said, narrowing his eyes. Might as well figure out what exactly he was going up against.

“Ah, well you know, I always say it’s like the third pillar of any fairytale’s narrative, it’s all the steps between the events that disturbs the protagonists’ stable daily lives, and the event that recreates balance. So, uh, it can be most anything depending on the story, like…”

Levi sighed internally. He was hopeless, the situation was hopeless, but, at the very least, he was glad he still got to hear Eren talk so spiritedly. He felt calm as he walked back to Eren’s home to the sound of his friend’s cheerful voice.

As they neared the back of Eren’s house, the brunet interrupted himself.

“Ooh by the way, I found an online website with a lot of good classic fairytales! I’m gonna read those tonight! I think there were a few that aren’t in my collection.”

Levi couldn’t resist. “Yes, everyone needs a healthy dose of fairies and true love’s kisses before bed,” he said flatly.

“Mhm, and I – HEY! You’re making fun of me aren’t you?”

Levi expressionlessly raised one shoulder and let it fall back.

“As I’ve _already told you_ ,” Eren hissed, “while I do prefer fairytales to have those elements, not all of them have them…”

Levi fought to keep a straight face. He really enjoyed how, even after all this time, Eren couldn’t always immediately tell when he was joking.

He also really enjoyed the way Eren’s wide eyes shone whenever he talked about his favorite books, or the way his voice turned all sing-songy when he took himself back to his favorite parts. The energy constantly burning beneath his skin radiated from him as he’d gesticulate animatedly, and Levi always felt himself being drawn in. The passion Eren’s whole being expressed for his stories was fascinating, and Levi took every opportunity to study that enthusiasm from up close.

Not too close. Normal close. As it was normal for someone whose standard mode was ‘unimpressed’ to be so intrigued by someone whose basic setting was ‘inexplicably bubbly’.

Yeah.

As always, Levi tuned in right on time to listen to Eren declare his undying love to the True Love’s Kiss trope.

He would rather die than let Eren find out he cared about that bit of information as much as he did, though. He’d openly care just enough to mess with his friend. A voice way at the back of his mind had something to say about his maturity levels, but he wasn’t willing to hear it.

“Shame authors tend to prefer tragic endings then,” Levi commented. “A true love’s kiss doesn’t actually seem to be as much of a big deal as you make it out to be, you and other dreamers. So much for your wishful thinking!” He flicked at Eren’s arm lightly.

Eren shoved back into him from the side, with his whole body.

“Wishful thinking can be a good thing!”, he cried, indignant. “A lot of people don’t like the tragic ends of fairytales, which is probably why versions with _happy_ twists are so popular! They make people _happy_!” A thought visibly crossed his mind, calming him down as he considered. “And sometimes wishful thinking leads to entire remakes instead of just ending changes. That’s pretty interesting to consider too. Ever wonder how the “Arthurian romance” genre came to be? And…”

And Levi was in for another speech.

It was truly nice to be home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren thinks he can find more treasure.  
> Levi thinks their summer could be going a lot better.

By evening, Levi hadn’t heard from Eren. Obviously, he’d been roped into a deep meaningful conversation with his mother again. The first text came the next day.

>> **Eren** (2:48 PM): LEVI!!! We gotta go back!!!

>> **Levi** (2:50 PM): ?

>> **Eren** (2:51 PM) What if there was more???

Oh right. What else did he expect the text to be about, honestly.

>> **Levi** (2:53 PM): I’m sure you would’ve seen

>> **Eren** (2:53 PM): Maybe there was more in the dirt, I didnt dig! And maybe the river carried some more downstream overnight!!!

Hardly likely. But Levi didn’t mind going back to the river with Eren, bored as he was, home alone, so he agreed to meet up later that day.

Eren had gotten too excited (again), and so instead of patiently waiting by the river after arriving early, he went to meet Levi at his home.

As they walked back the way he’d come, Eren continued to prattle on about the possibility of finding more treasure, all while swinging around the neon-colored plastic shovel he’d brought along.

“Today’s findings might be even more valuable, like, maybe we’ll find stuff that’s super telling as to the treasure’s history” Eren said, as if they were even sure their findings so far were valuable at all. “Hey, it’ll be like in that Balinese children’s story, with the old man, and the axes of varying worth, and the fairy testing his greed.”

“In that case we should’ve left your treasure there yesterday, you know, or the local fairy won’t try to tempt us with more today,” Levi deadpanned.

“Oh yay, you did read that one!”

“You made me read the whole collection of Balinese stories, dumbass,” Levi said.

Good thing he remembered. Eren was probably checking if he needed to make Levi read them all again.

“I’m such a great friend. They’re awesome, aren’t they?”

“Mhm… But you know what this all means, though?”

Eren turned to him, eyes glittering with excitement. “What? What?”

“In fairy standards, you’re too easy.” Levi felt the corners of his lips twitch up as Eren’s eyes widened in horror.

“No!”, he shouted dramatically. “I should’ve known, dammit I got too excited!”

Levi snorted. “You always do, I think your treasure fairy really brought out your true nature there.”

Eren scrambled with his thoughts for a moment, before turning to Levi with a solemn expression.

“No wait, these fairies test for greed, I just got carried away with over-enthusiasm.” He hesitated. “Would fairies punish that?” He was staring at Levi with scared, owlish eyes.

Levi’s problem was that those eyes usually made him say ‘yes’ to anything, but a part of his brain alerted him that the right answer here was ‘no’. It was unsettling seeing those eyes like that. They were supposed to be shining bright always, and Levi knew he hated the fear he saw in them now – never mind that it was mock fear.

It was a reflex, for Levi, to say whatever it would take to wipe any negative emotions from those doe eyes. Well. It was a reflex to _try_.

“They uh… you err…” _Pull it together_. “How the hell would I know?”, he ended up saying, too loud. “Do I look like a damn fairy to you?”

Eren blinked. Then he was dissolving into a fit of giggles. I wave of relief swept over Levi, hard.

Hard enough that he almost found the giggles cute.

Almost, as that thought was instantly kicked away by Eren’s next words.

“I mean, you’re about as tiny as they’re rumored to be.”

Levi chased him all the way down to the river.

~~

As Eren hopped from rock to rock again, he mused about his Balinese children’s stories collection again.

“I should get mom to read it. There were really pretty illustrations in there too.”

“There was literally one story about a stork who murdered fish on rocks, much like the ones you’re walking on now, before dying a brutal death there too,” Levi frowned. “Please come up with a better time to think about those stories. This is… grim.” He couldn’t help but crinkle his nose in a grimace.

“Aw,” Eren cooed, “afraid I’m gonna die out here too?”

“No,” Levi said. Too quickly. “Anyway, wasn’t that a collection of fairytales? What’s up with a lot of them ending so brutally for most of the protagonists?”

By that point, Eren had reached the same spot in the river as the day before, and was poking around with his shovel. His gestures became aimless, as his mind visibly turned all to their conversation.

“It’s not just cause there were fairies in a lot of the stories that they were fairytales,” he began.

“You gotta admit that word is sort of misleading,” Levi muttered.

“Maybe it is, but I’m telling you, those weren’t fairytales.”

“Because there wasn’t a true love’s kiss to go with them?” Levi feigned confusion.

“God dammit, Levi! I’ve told you, while I do enjoy that kind of happy end, it’s not important.”

No way. If Eren cared, it was definitely important.

“No, those stories are fables,” Eren continued. “In short, fables usually have plants or animals as their main characters, and there’s nothing left for its audience to guess at, in the end. I mean, at the heart of a fable is a moral lesson, and it’s not disguised, or left up to the imagination at all. They really spell it out for you.”

“… You genuinely think about all this whenever you read something, don’t you,” Levi said. It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah, so?”

“So nothing, that’s cool. Good for you, I guess.”

Eren hadn’t been expecting such a simple answer, and froze up for a moment, probably wondering if he was being made fun of.

“Uhm, thanks,” he finally replied. He was suddenly very agitated, if the suddenly jerky movements of his shovel were anything to go by.

“Eren! Go easy on the digging, or else - ”

“Ah!”

Too late.

Eren slipped sideways, failed to regain his balance with the shovel still in hand, and hit his hip hard on the rocks as he went down.

He remained seated for a moment, stunned, clinging to the rock instinctively, immersed up to his waist.

Levi had been too far to prevent the fall, reaching the heap of limbs Eren had become a split second too late. So much for staying out of the mud. But his drenched feet and calves were not the reason behind the fury overshadowing his entire demeanor.

There was a limit to how badly injured you could get from a thirty centimeter fall off a rock into water. But that thought didn’t come to Levi until much later.

“EREN! You _idiot_ , I’ve been telling you for _years_ that this was going to happen! If you’re gonna balance on fucking slippery rocks, at least try to balance properly, stop doing a million things at a time while up there! What the fuck did you think was gonna happen? I bet you weren’t even thinking, were you?”

Eren stared back at him, mouth agape. Levi crouched down in the water by his side. Cold water be damned.

“You’ve _got_ to be careful, ugh, all this for what? Seriously, there is no good reason to risk getting injured like this, this is so fucking _stupid-_ ”

“Levi! Hey, chill, I’m fine.” Eren made no move to get up. He smiled gently at Levi, probably in hopes that would be enough to appease his sudden panic. “Look at us, waiting by the rocks! We can be like sirens, luring sailors to their deaths, get ready to sing with me!”

Eren wasn’t standing back up. The realization sent chills down Levi’s spine.

“Are you kidding me, get on your feet _right now_ , did you twist your ankle? Are you hurt? Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, let me see your leg!”

“Oh my god, Levi, relax! I’m fine. I’m- ” he winced. “Well, my ankles aren’t twisted.”

He used his arms to heave himself out of the water and back onto his rock. Besides the humongous bruise his hip would be sporting, he had one small injury. 

Levi looked down to see a huge rip going up the inside seam of Eren’s jeans, going just past his knee. He couldn’t care less about the jeans though, his eyes zooming in instead on the blood trickling out from the tear.

“Shit, how do you even manage that? Why are you like this, for fuck’s sake, okay, okay, you know what,” Levi said in one breath, “lean on me, we’re going home.”

“I’m telling you, it’s no big deal!”

“No big deal, yeah right, dumbass!”

“Alright! Fine, you’re right,” Eren said, finally looking a bit sheepish.  Suddenly, his eyes went wide in fear. “My pants, Levi!”

“Uh, talk about delayed reaction?”

“Mom’s gonna _kill_ me when she sees them!” Eren turned unnaturally pale, unnaturally fast. “Help, me, I can’t let her see this!”

“ _That_ ’s what you’re worrying about?” Levi would add that they were university students now, and university students shouldn’t be that terrified of a perfectly loving mother’s wrath, but Carla’s wrath was in another league.

“Levi!” Eren wailed, gripping Levi’s leg, “do something!”

He’d have to be heartless to not do everything in his power to help Eren. He’d feel like a monster if he ignored that imploring gaze. It was not fair, not fair at all.

“I… might be able to sort that out, actually,” he muttered. “Lucky it only ripped along the inseam. I can probably sew it back up. Think you can make it back to mine if I help you?”

Eren was grinning broadly, nodding cheerfully. “Thank you! Oh wow, you are literally saving my ass right now, let’s go!”

He was hardly in that much pain, was he. The blood was almost certainly coming from a typical rock scratch, thin and superficial, but misleading in the amount of blood initially flowing out of it. But better safe than sorry, right? Or at least, so Levi thought, as he helped Eren up and placed a tan hand on his shoulder, wordlessly encouraging Eren to lean on him if his leg or hip hurt. Verbally, he was busy grumbling about how Eren needed to learn not to get killed the second he’d be left on his own.

Eren looked ever slightly surprised, but quickly fell into a new game, this time narrating and acting out the life of a soldier wounded on the front, heroically being dragged back by a stronger fellow fighter. Sometime along the game, he slid his arm around Levi’s shoulders, lending him more of his weight.

“You’d be of higher ranking,” Eren mused, as Levi exited the woods and stepped onto his street, having supported them both the whole way back.

“What makes you think that?”

“Your character would have a cool aura… I dunno, I think some people would find you intimidating? You could only keep that cool distance in the military if you were a superior officer. Something like that.”

Levi huffed, trying to keep a neutral expression, but deep down he was knew Eren meant it kindly, and was pleased.

~~

They entered the Ackerman home and were greeted with silence. As was the norm. It didn’t matter what time it was. Neither of the boys ever tried keeping track of Kuchel’s schedule. (Well, maybe sometimes Levi did, but it was all for naught).

The house spread out over only one floor, and it was enough for Levi and his mother. Kuchel had aimed to make it as cozy as possible for Levi. The tiled floor was covered in thick and fancy rugs, and plush couches could be found in almost every room. Elegant, warm-colored paintings, that Kuchel had brought back from her favorite European towns, adorned the tall walls.

“Okay, you’re gross and you’re gonna track mud everywhere. Take your shoes and socks off, roll your pants up, and get your ass under the shower,” Levi said, as he yanked his own squishing socks of his feet. “Leave your stuff under the heater,” he added, pointing to the one on the side of the entrance, “and toss me your pants once you’ve taken them off. I’ll chuck it all in the wash with mine.”

After doing exactly that, and pulling dry clothes on, Levi rummaged around the kitchen for something to eat. Regardless of whether his mother would be back for dinnertime or not, he’d be the one cooking. Better start getting some ideas.

His mother always insisted they cook from scratch, and she liked making meals fancy. Levi had just finished a full kitchen inventory, cursing about how anything he could make would take a while, when he heard Eren call from behind him.

“Levi, stupid, you didn’t give me any pants back!”

Levi turned to face Eren, and barely kept enough of a grip on his senses to catch the pan he’d been twirling around. He froze for a second, before spinning away again and spitting out, “I don’t see how that prevented you from putting your shirt back on?”

Eren stood in the kitchen doorway just wrapped in a towel. Who was the stupid one really? Also, bonus question, why the hell was Levi feeling the need to look away? They used to go swimming together much further down the river, where it got deeper. Levi steeled himself and looked back at Eren.

He’d merely shrugged in response to the only one of Levi’s questions spoken aloud, and was busy with another towel, rubbing his hair dry.

Okay. Okay, no, he certainly hadn’t been that toned when they went swimming as kids. That was normal, perfectly normal. Or was it, though, surely it was a bit unfair, when his main hobbies consisted in reading, watching movies, and joining debate teams? Yeah, there was no way lying around gave anyone those abs. Or those shoulders. And how did he stay that tan? The sun hadn’t been around in ages, even back in their university town. Surely no one else had skin like that, with the shitty summer they were having. Also, another thing, what was with those collar bones? Levi knew bone structure changed as people grew too, but how had he never noticed how gorgeous those had come to be. They were… enticing…

Nice, clearly Levi now had a problem opposite to the one he’d had earlier. He’d been too quick to look away. Now he found he could not look away at all.

Fantastic.

“Uh, Levi? So… you think you can lend me some clothes?” Eren was looking up at Levi through his lashes, as he finished patting his hair dry.

Levi’s heart skipped a beat, and he could feel his face heat up, but he managed to croak out an annoyed “Fine, fine, follow me,” and spin on his heels. He hurried out from the kitchen’s other entrance, and turned down the hall leading to his room. He could unmistakably tell that Eren was staring a hole through his back.

As Levi dug through his closet, Eren spoke up again.

“So… Mom messaged me, she wants me home for dinner soon…” He trailed off, waiting for a response. Getting none, he pushed on. “Levi, I cannot let her find out about my jeans.”

Yes. Levi was aware of that problem. Levi tried to find Eren’s point on his face. There was definitely more to be said, going by Eren’s chewing on the inside of his cheek. But he was looking insistently at Levi, as if desperately begging him to understand without Eren having to utter a single extra word.

Levi preferred when matters were stated clearly, but he could try. For Eren, Levi would try. “Your jeans still need to be put through a drying cycle.”

Eren tilted his head ever slowly. Levi mirrored him, hoping he was right in guessing that meant ‘go on’.

“You’re gonna be late for dinner…?”, he attempted, voice raising slowly into a question. It was as if he were taking a test.

“I’m probably gonna miss dinner altogether,” Eren said.

Levi’s eyes narrowed. So this was a test. At least, in the sense that there was only one correct answer to everything Eren was telling him. Levi’s first thought was “No, a drying cycle for so few clothes is only forty minutes,” but he could tell: that was not the right answer.

What then? Carla would be so angry if Eren came home and demanded dinner long after she’d told him she’d be serving it, so if he wanted to avoid an angry Carla, he simply couldn’t – _oh_.

“Well… in that case, I guess you better eat here?” Levi said.

He was granted one of Eren’s luminous smiles for that, and it was much more rewarding than any high score on a test.

“You know what would be awesome, though?” Eren had that look on his face, the one that said he had the idea of the year. There was nothing Levi could do to stop it from happening now.

“What?”, he asked. Eren could answer his own question, for a change.

“A sleepover! What a great way to start the summer break!”

Levi was left blinking rapidly. First of all, summer break had technically started a few days ago. Secondly, there wouldn’t be anything special about one really. Levi was pretty sure Eren had mentioned crashing at other people’s dorms over the semester.

Thirdly… Levi had a weird feeling about this. There was a weird fluttering in his stomach. Hmm. It’d been a long time since Eren had stayed over last. Levi was probably just nervous about receiving a guest overnight.

No, he wasn’t exactly nervous. Nervous was a bad feeling. This… wasn’t. It was pleasant.

Ah well, that was that then, wasn’t it? He wasn’t going to refuse something pleasant. It would be too quiet, spending another evening alone. What would he do anyway? Stay up browsing pathetic excuses for entertainment all night?

He was taking too long to reply. He’d been staring with what most likely was a bewildered expression back at Eren, whose smile had just slightly begun to falter.

“A… sleepover.” Now that wasn’t a word Levi used a lot. “Yeah. Sure, sounds… great. Just. Yeah.” Eloquent, Levi, very nice.

Luckily Eren was used to Levi’s lack of enthusiasm towards things he in fact did care about, and beamed at him. “Great! Since you’re hosting me, I can make dinner,” he sang.

“As a matter of fact, you can’t,” Levi snapped. “Literally. We both know you can’t cook.” No way was he going to let Eren burn down the home his mother worked so hard to afford.

“I got better over the year!”

“Sure you did.” Levi barely held back from rolling his eyes, knowing Eren would definitely lose his temper with him then.

“I did!” Actually, Eren looked more saddened by Levi’s disbelief than angry. That hurt.

“Listen, mom stores quite weird stuff. Atypical ingredients. Most people wouldn’t know what to do with what she’s got stored.” As much as Levi wanted to reassure Eren, they needed to be realistic. _And not burn down the house_.

Eren glared. “Every kitchen’s got pasta.”

Levi thought for a second. His mother probably wouldn’t mind if he dug into the pasta some Italian colleague had given her. From his hometown, or whatever. Alright then.

“You take care of the pasta, I’ll take care of the sauce, okay?” Hopefully if Eren only had to touch pasta, a pot, and water, his mother would come home to an intact stove.

Levi shook his head. He was definitely exaggerating a bit. But Eren had to be bad at something, and cooking was the only thing he’d found so far.

He went to transfer their clothing from the washing machine into the dryer while Eren texted Carla, and they got to work.

“Mom says it’s cool, but she wants to invite you over soon in return,” Eren said.

Without paying much attention to Levi’s noncommittal hum (who _cared_ about who went over to whose place, really), he gathered what he needed. Levi’s eyes followed him as he darted straight to the cabinet for pots and pans, comfortably padded over to the sink, set the water to boil on the stove, and found the salt and pasta without asking for anything.

Of course Eren knew where to find everything, just as Levi did in Carla’s house. Levi wasn’t sure why, but it felt good, to see Eren was perfectly at ease where he lived.

Eren whipped around all of a sudden, catching Levi’s stare. He furrowed his eyebrows, as his lips jutted out into a pout.

“What, afraid I’d try to boil the pasta in a glass bowl?” He stuck his tongue out. “I’m not that helpless, Levi, Christ.”

Oops. “No, no, it was just –  ”

Just what? He had no better explanation as to why he had been staring.

“Uhm, yeah, no, I was just wondering what I’d make to go with it,” he mumbled, before darting over to the spice cupboard.

He opened it wide, and inhaled deeply the delicious aroma wafting out of it. He sighed contentedly. Levi had missed having access to all of this at university.

Eren popped up right behind his shoulder. “I can’t believe your mom uses all of these,” he said, awed, eyes gliding over the dozens of bottles and containers. “I swear there are at least ten extra jars every time I come around.”

There was a short pause. Then, “Levi?”

Levi turned around slowly, intrigued by the sudden seriousness in Eren’s tone. “Eren?”

“How much of this actually goes into cooking?”

“How much – What?” Levi did his best to grant Eren his signature death glare, but their proximity was affecting his ability to do so.

Dammit, Eren, there was absolutely no need to get all up in his face to interrogate him! It wasn’t even intimidating, clearly that wasn’t why Levi was scrambling for words. It… It was because Eren’s question was so stupid. Yeah.

Wait, what was the question again?

Eren leaned in even closer, so they were eye to eye. “Levi… is your mom… a witch?”

Levi snorted right in his face.

“Levi! You can tell me, seriously!”

“Oh my god, Eren,” Levi said, and bit his lip to hold back laughter. Eren couldn’t think he was laughing at him, it was the thought of his workaholic mother doing witchcraft on the side that amused him endlessly. “If mom and I were witches or something I would have cursed you long ago.”

“No, you wouldn’t have! You’d have been too afraid of worse happening to you in exchange.”

“Worth it,” Levi said, turning back to the counter, having gathered the herbs and spices he needed. “And anyway, says who?”

“Say all the books on witchcraft,” Eren shrugged.

“ _All_ of them?”, Levi asked, lips quirking up, having begun to chop onions. Without looking he knew Eren was glaring at him.

“I can’t possibly have read all of them!”

This time Levi couldn’t hold back his hilarity, and he laughed through the tears the onions were causing him to spill – _seriously, fuck onions_ – at the thought there were still books out there Eren hadn’t read.

Eren finished his part of the job a while before Levi did. No surprise there, really. So he scurried about the kitchen, passing Levi the ingredients and utensils he asked for, wearing his special guest slippers. He gave Levi a satisfied grin when he noticed that Levi was leaving out the ingredients Eren didn’t like. That was decent compensation for Levi’s troubles.

Both of them were starving by the time the food was ready, and very little was said during the meal. Eren wolfed down his food, as he always had. It used to make Kuchel extremely pleased, when they were kids. She’d say that since he’d been a good boy, he’d be invited again. Levi had thought it was her way of making sure Eren always ate everything. Now he realized there was no need, and she’d simply been teasing him. Levi paused briefly to watch Eren’s reaction to his food. Going by the joy radiating off his face, he’d successfully picked what Eren would like.

Levi’s gaze ended up lingering on Eren’s face longer than expected. Anyone who’d known him as a kid would’ve still recognized him. There was still a soft roundness to his cheeks, and an even softer fullness to his lips that made him look younger than others on campus. Gentle features to match his kind and generous personality. But it was in his eyes that his youth truly lingered. They were as expressive as Levi’s were impassive. A green that shifted in the light, and according to Levi, shifted even with Eren’s moods (he had a feeling no one would believe him if he mentioned it, though). Always wide and alert, they had tales to tell that Levi loved watching for, as much as he loved listening to Eren’s other stories. Long, dark lashes cast shadows over his cheekbones as Eren continued to dig into his food, blissfully unaware of the close scrutiny he was undergoing.

Watching Eren so carefully, in silence, made something shift deep in Levi’s chest. There was no sudden shock, or gut clenching, the way there would have been, had there been a brand new feeling there. It was almost as if the shift had been waiting forever. Buried, and only just starting to make itself known.

For the moment, Levi was glad his cooking could make Eren look this content. So glad, in fact, that he considered cooking more often. For Eren. Maybe next year they should become roommates at university. Then they could share meals like this all the time. It’d be a daily thing to see Eren wander around, right at home, in what would also be his kitchen. Something tugged at Levi’s chest at the thought.

At that moment, Eren finally paused in his chewing just long enough to moan, “mmm this is so good!”, and any daydreams Levi had been having died right then and there. His mind went entirely blank in a second, to make way for only one thought: he would most certainly be inviting Eren over again, and again, and again, and again.

Once they were done, Levi wordlessly stood up, grabbed a few dishes and began to wash. Eren gathered the rest, placed it all in the sink. When Levi held clean dishes out to the side, Eren was ready, dish towel in hand. Drowsily, and without anything needing to be said, they returned the kitchen to its original spotless state.

It wasn’t before they were sprawled out on the couch that Eren brought up the unfortunate events of the day again.

“I can’t believe I didn’t find anything!” He gripped his hair overdramatically, but Levi knew he truly was frustrated. “There could be more anywhere in the river, I should’ve walked along it first in case anything was really visible.”

Levi didn’t think Eren ever had just walked along the side of the river.

“It’s no big deal. Look, we already have enough rocks we don’t know what to do with,” Levi tried. His interest in going back for more treasure hunting, with Eren possibly falling again, was quite limited.

Eren made a sound of annoyance. “But we can’t have anyone else finding more!”

“Do you even realize how unlikely that is?” Levi sighed. “We were the neighborhood’s only babies, everyone else here is old, no, _ancient_ , they won’t be going for strolls that close to the river. And anyway, why would that even be a problem?”

Oh, shit, Eren looked hurt by that question. Levi could see his temper flare up and then fall again, as Eren mumbled, “But it’s _our_ treasure, though…”

Levi didn’t have the heart to tell him to stop being a dumbass, as he knew he should, because he wanted this, he wanted something new to be just his and Eren’s. Levi stared blankly at Eren, wondering how the hell he was going to manage to conciliate what he should be saying and what he wanted to say, two very direct opposites.

Of course he took too long to reply. Again. Eren was fidgeting, and forcing a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. Levi found nothing better to do than stare on, still completely uninspired.

“Also,” Eren finally blurted, a bit flushed, “no pirates ever let some other random crew get a part of their treasure! You can’t just _leave_ stuff behind unless you’re in mortal danger!”

Levi rolled his eyes. “Aye, aye, Cap’n.”

Eren huffed at that, but he was smiling a real smile this time.

Levi decided that since talking about the treasure brought Eren’s mood down, they weren’t going to any longer.

“We can put on a movie, if you want, while I patch up your non-fashionably ripped-up pants,” he offered.

“Ooh, yeah, sure! Let’s watch something we’ve both seen already, so we can talk at the same time. So you can tell me if you’re having any problems with the sewing thing,” he said, as Levi went to grab the jeans from the dryer.

“And what exactly would you do? Help me sew?”, Levi called back.

He could hear Eren’s laughter. “Nah, I can’t sew at all. I’ll just prepare my grave for tomorrow, when mom finds me.”

Levi hummed. “Maybe I should let it come to that.”

Eren was crouched in front of the DVD player, having just popped something into it. “Hah! You would never.”

“Wanna bet?” Levi was stood on a footstool, halted in his movement of reaching for the sewing kit, on its living room shelf.

Eren’s smile vanished as Levi made to climb down.

“No, no, no, please Levi, please!” Then, probably realizing Levi was still joking, “You’re my only hope! My knight in shining armor!” He sighed, clutched his hands before his heart, and fell back on the couch theatrically.

“That’s better,” Levi chuckled, and finally grabbed the sewing kit. He shoved Eren to one end of the couch before dropping onto it next to him.

“Actually, you’re more like those tiny elves who come in and save the cobbler’s broke ass,” Eren said as he flicked through the DVD’s menu, and Levi elbowed him hard in the ribs for that spout of brilliance.

Not even halfway through ‘Finding Nemo’ (“’Finding Dory’ made me nostalgic!”, Eren had said, defensive), Levi looked up from his work to catch Eren’s gaze lingering on his hands.

“What?”

Eren’s shoulders stiffened, and he shook his head imperceptibly, as if he’d been snapped out a daze.

“You have good hands.”

As soon as the words tumbled out of his mouth, Eren’s eyes widened comically. Maybe he found those words as strange as Levi did.

“I mean! You…”

Levi’s hands had stilled. What was he going to be compared to now? Cinderella? Maybe Eren wouldn’t focus on the patching up of clothing as much as on the use of thread, and think he’d be kind by calling Levi Arachne. Or even Rumpelstiltskin. Or maybe he’d come up with a name Levi had never even heard of.

“You… you’re really good at that,” Eren finally concluded, and allowed his intense gaze to fall back on Levi’s hands.

_What?_

Levi felt it again, the deeply anchored, yet elusive feeling buried in his chest. He wondered absently how he’d ignored it for so long. It wasn’t especially unpleasant to acknowledge. Accepting it could be pleasant, even. Warm. Like settling down near the fireplace after a day out in the snow.

 _Could be_ , but Levi had no idea how to react.

At the moment, he was completely caught off guard.

It dawned upon him that this was the first direct compliment Eren had ever addressed him. No. Surely, it couldn’t be? And yet. Levi forced himself to actually think hard about it. He barely held back a sigh. Despite so many years of friendship, the only way Eren had ever found positive traits in Levi was if they likened him to a fictional character. Sometimes, Eren did praise the result of their teamwork – as he had appreciated their cooking earlier – but besides that… every positive comment couldn’t exist without a “like this character from X” or “it’s like in this story where Y”.

An icy wind lashed through Levi’s chest, where warmth had only just started making its nest, freezing him up from within.

 _Eren had_ never _complimented him_.

Not as he was. Levi. Just Levi. As he was, as Eren knew him, not guessed at through the shadow of some hero Eren already worshipped.

This shouldn’t be such an issue for Levi. But first of all, Eren was pretty generous with his compliments, he knew from when they hung out with other people. And most importantly, Levi was now burning with one question.

_Did Eren even see him for who he was at alI?_

Levi made himself take a deep breath, and slow down. That way of thinking wasn’t fair to Eren at all. Eren wouldn’t be that disrespectful towards anyone.

And yet… If Eren did see him for what he was... _Could_ he appreciate him, bland, painfully introverted Levi? Maybe if Levi had managed to keep up with more of his interests. Maybe if he had some interesting debate to offer, if he were a challenge on certain topics… That was it, wasn’t it, he’d been so incredibly stupid to think it’d be enough to passively listen to Eren day after day. Of course Eren would have to start making guesses as to his personality. His real one would be so easy to wash away and replace with whatever Eren might come up with. Even as kids, Levi had been a lot quieter than average. _Oh, no_. He hoped Carla hadn’t forced Eren to be friends with him because she saw him all alone. Her and her son were too kind, the latter wouldn’t have ever refused.

Maybe Levi really was terribly boring. And since creative, fun-loving Eren had basically been stuck with him since their childhood, maybe Eren had taken to imagining Levi as more interesting than he was, as a way of coping with him.

Levi looked up and searched Eren’s face, in hopes of finding something, _anything_ reassuring in Eren’s expression.

But Eren was now determinedly staring at the TV. It was probably his favorite part of the movie. And Levi was probably just imagining that Eren’s ears had turned a few shades darker.

Nemo was not going to be found by Levi that night. He was too lost in his own thoughts, flicking through every single memory he had with Eren. There were a lot, and every single one was pleasant (the tinge of nostalgia must’ve had a hand in that). The trip down memory lane could have been fun. He could have smiled at the reminiscing.

Instead, he let a wave of sadness drag him away, as he repainted those memories in the dark shades of his new understanding. Levi was a burden in Eren’s adventures, Eren’s smiles to him didn’t reach his eyes.

Levi was boring.

~~

Eren’s chatter began in perfect synch with the credits.

“This is _such_ a great movie though? It’s like two adventures in one, since we get Marlin’s point of view _and_ Nemo’s, both of them on a quest to find the other. They promise us a quest in the title, and they deliver. Double time. Awesome. Also, you know I’m a sucker for the humor in this. Oh, and one film critic said this movie was like ‘underwater treasure’, and, hey, that’s basically it.” Eren wiggled around on the couch to fully face Levi, and prodded his leg with his foot. “Speaking of treasure… Have you given more thought to what we should do about ours?”

There it was again. _Ours_. Levi couldn’t help but feel a bit better when he heard Eren say it so easily.

But that was just him being stupid.

Still, he would’ve liked to cling to that soothing feeling a little longer. Stressing out about their findings, or worse, getting into a disagreement over the course of action to be taken, was not the best way to go.

“It’s late, we should head to bed,” he announced flatly.

Eren titled his head to the side, visibly taken aback. But why was he asking Levi this anyway, since when was Levi a man with a plan? Apparently since at least just now, since Eren insisted.

“Because I think we might have better options that we first realized…” He trailed off, clearly hoping that Levi would ask him what those options were, and how he came up with them.

Levi wouldn’t give him that satisfaction.

“I’m done sewing up your pants. You’ll be able to wear them in the morning.”

“Uh… thanks.” Eren’s brows furrowed in confusion. Levi spoke up again before Eren could say anything more.

“Listen, we can talk tomorrow morning, alright?” He was already feeling guilty for sounding snappy. “I’m really tired. I want to go to bed.”

Eren’s intense stare didn’t let up. “But I thought you didn’t sleep much…?”

His face suddenly showed shock at his own words, as if his brain had only just caught up with his mouth. Then his expression was lighting up. “Well, if you think you might be able to get some sleep tonight, yeah, definitely, let’s go!” Eren bounced up from the couch and darted away.

Huh. Surely Eren would’ve normally gotten angry at Levi’s obvious topic avoidance? If Eren really wanted to talk about something, he wouldn’t usually budge until they had. Weird.

But Levi wasn’t going to complain. He was emotionally drained. All he wanted was for Eren to fall asleep so he could be left alone with his thoughts, to wallow in self-pity, like the pathetic overgrown teen he was.

Levi flopped down on top of his bed, and proceeded to curl up, back to Eren.

Based on the creaking of the closet and the rustling of clothing, then sheets, Levi could keep track of what Eren was up to, shuffling about in his room. He knew where to find pajamas, and how to prepare the drawer-bed he’d sleep in.

Levi probably should help, but he was not up for holding conversation.  And it’d be easier to convince Eren he’d fallen asleep if he hadn’t been moving around for a while.

Eren switched off the lights and slid into his bed. Levi counted down in his head: “ _three… two… one…”_

“Levi? Hey, Levi? Psst…” Some more shuffling around. When it arose again, the voice was a lot closer. Levi barely managed to prevent himself from jumping.

“Levi… I know you never fall asleep _that_ fast,” Eren whispered.

Ignoring that last comment, Levi focused on breathing regularly. Silence hung over the room, for a few moments. Maybe Eren fell asleep half leaning on his bed.

But then, gentle fingers threaded lightly through his hair. Levi focused on his breathing even harder.

“Hmm… guess maybe you really were exhausted,” Eren murmured. His hand lingered for a second, warm and soft, before it came to rest on Levi’s pillow. “I’m glad you get to sleep then.”

Eren crawled back under his own sheets, still whispering to himself, as if to Levi. “I do worry about you, what with your insomnia and all… I’m sorry I can’t really understand. I do wish there was more I could do to help. But,” a yawn, “I really am happy if you manage to rest tonight. Goodnight, Levi. Sweet dreams.”

Levi laid still, tense, heartbeat hammering away in his chest. Slowly, he lifted a hand to his heart, in hopes of blocking the deafening sound it was producing from Eren.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, Eren, ruffling Levi's hair totally wouldn't have woken him up anyway 8)
> 
> Amazing what you can get away with when people care about you.  
> Respect people's sleep, everyone <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi worries about a lot more than he should. Eren realizes, but isn't exactly the best at smoothing things out. Especially when he has his own insecurities to worry about.  
> Maybe the buried treasure should've stayed buried.

Dawn projected a pale pink light across Levi’s room early in the morning.

 _Very_ early in the morning.

Ugh, right, Eren never bothered drawing the curtains closed at night, and he’d forgotten to do it.

Levi blinked his heavy lids open, and immediately regretted that decision. He rolled over, stuffing his face into his pillow.

Okay. It seemed he truly had been as drained as he’d made Eren believe. Except that for him, exhaustion only meant three hours of sleep at best. Included when he was exceptionally worn out.

He’d tossed and turned for hours last night, and must have finally relaxed as dawn neared. Alas, dawn had come now, and he was already up again.

Not fully awake for sure, but awake enough for glum thoughts to claim sovereignty over his brain once again.

If anything, running on two hours or so of sleep worsened how he’d felt the night before. The same nasty thoughts were echoing around his skull relentlessly, reminding him that he was plain, pessimistic, and just generally had nothing to offer Eren’s luminous nature, forcing his friend to reimagine his personality again and again.

Now his entire body and mind felt as heavy as his lids. In what would be his greatest effort that day, he rolled over again, to look at Eren.

Limbs were sticking out from the sheets at odd angles. The promise of a bad bed-head crowned Eren’s sleeping face. His mouth hung open, but he was neither drooling nor snoring. It twitched. A dream was most likely keeping Eren unaware of his surroundings, and of Levi’s gloomy stare. Eren was a completely helpless mess. 

Levi was equally helpless before the fierce fondness that rose up in his chest at the sight. He’d been there the whole time those limbs had grown, including the time they were ‘too long’ compared to the rest of Eren’s body, and Eren had felt bad because he found himself too lanky. Levi had convinced him his growth spurt was completely normal, he should have been glad he was growing in good health. Levi had even made him laugh, when he’d admitted he envied Eren a bit, because Eren, at least, had been growing at all. He’d been there even before that, when his hair was the problem: he was the one who’d convinced Eren to let Carla brush the bird’s nest his hair turned into every morning, there was nothing shameful about letting his mother take care of him, and anyone who said otherwise was stupid. And that mouth, he’d seen it smile, laugh, contort in anger and twist in sorrow, he watched it carefully as Eren spoke, watched it closely always, and –

 _Ugh_.

It was unlikely his pillow would be enough to drown out his screaming entirely, if he did that.

Alright then. Time to get up.

There was more to worry about anyway.

Constantly worrying about what the treasure was going to drag him into was irritating. He wanted to just get rid of it as swiftly as possible, and for that to happen, he and Eren needed to talk.

~~

After a quick shower, Levi headed over to the kitchen to set out breakfast. As expected, he was greeted by a note from his mother on the table.

“Bonjour mon trésor,

Had to head out early again. But will be back early afternoon.

Looking forward to spending time with you!

Bisous,

Maman”

Levi smiled to himself. His mother had been learning French out of sheer love of the language, and had been forcing him to learn it too. He’d complained about it at first, but now, it warmed his heart to find such notes from Kuchel. It was an extra bond she went out of her way to give them both.

His smile faded quickly. _This afternoon, huh_. He wouldn’t have minded if the distraction had come sooner, but that would have been too much to ask for.

He took out the bread and cereal (oh, good, they still had the way-too-sugary one Eren liked), and some milk.

Then, he walked over to the corner cupboard where he and Kuchel kept the stepping stool they both needed to reach the higher shelves. With a huge clatter, he managed to yank it out from the clutches of a diverse population of household appliances. Since he’d caused that much of a ruckus already, Levi unceremoniously dragged the stool over, and kicked it into place under the bowl cupboard.

Footsteps sounded from behind him as he climbed up onto the stool’s first step.

“Good morning,” he managed to grumble, without turning around. Eren probably already had a bright, toothpaste advertisement worthy smile on his face, as he sang “Good morning!” back. Maybe he shouldn’t let Eren have the sugar-loaded cereal. Yes, Levi probably should have gone to put the cereal back away.

 But he was not given the chance, as Eren’s arms wrapped around his waist.

“Eren!”, Levi snapped, “it’s the stool that could need extra stabilizing, not me!”

“You’re king of the world, Levi!”, Eren laughed back.

A moment passed.

Eren tried again. “You know… Like in ‘Titanic’?”

The silence this time was awkward. But Levi found he was in no mood to respond.

Which was, in fact, a more significant problem than it may have sounded like.

He’d _never_ failed to react to Eren’s imagination before. He would have rolled with it, on good days. Asked about new scenarios, sometimes. Teasingly made fun of it, excited about what Eren would come back with, often.

But he would’ve _never_ given Eren the cold shoulder. Ever.

Unfortunately, at that moment, Levi simply couldn’t find it in him to play along.

And there was no way Eren wouldn’t have noticed something was very wrong.

Yet, to Levi’s surprise, he was spared any questioning. Eren simply released him, and went to sit at the table.

While their breakfast was abnormally quiet at first, Eren was quick to recover. He was most likely putting Levi’s attitude on the account of him not being a morning person. Eren asked Levi if he managed to get any sleep, as he always did. Levi replied yes, probably about two hours, as he rarely did. Eren seemed very pleased by this answer, though he was obviously trying not to show it. He only murmured that was good, very good, and Levi wasn’t entirely sure those words truly were directed at him. He was about to think Eren was speaking without even realizing, when Eren looked up at him and grinned.

Levi gave up on trying to understand what part of his answer made Eren so happy.

Eren then went back to his usual talkative self. As he was attempting to tell Levi about places they should go that summer, even as he was brushing his teeth, he received a text from his mother.

“Ee wa ee oo-“ Eren started. Levi wordlessly handed him a glass of water and shoved him towards the sink.

After rinsing his mouth, Eren started again.

“She wants me to accompany her while she goes grocery shopping.” He pulled a face.

“She just wants to spend time with you, Eren, now be a decent child and go.”

“But -”

Something on Levi’s face must have made Eren reconsider his protests. Or, he remembered that Levi always rejoiced when he got to spend time with his own mother, and had more tact than Levi gave him credit for.

Probably a bit of both.

In any case, he was leaving Levi’s home a few moments later, promising to contact Levi very soon, “so you won’t get lonely.”

Levi was left with only very little time to contemplate his thoughts of the past few days, before he heard the door open again, and a voice he’d deeply missed.

“Levi? Are you home, mon trésor?”

The calm voice lifted his spirits instantly, as he rushed to the entrance to greet his mother.

~~

His mother’s jokes about her work, despite how impossibly difficult Levi knew it was, managed to keep his mind off Eren and his ( _their_ ) treasure through lunch and an early afternoon cup of tea.

When Kuchel headed to her room for a nap, Levi returned to his own, and turned on his laptop, ready to bum around online like any university student on vacation.

But as soon as he got online, his eye was drawn to an instant message popping up at the bottom right of his screen. Eren. Of course.

 **Eren** : Soooo…

 **Eren** : What do we do? *^*

Levi leaned back into his desk chair with a groan. Well. They’d somehow managed to avoid dealing with their findings for two days.

Eren was possibly starting to realize that there was no point in keeping any of it. Would he reconsider selling it then? Levi wouldn’t dare claim a share of the price if he did.

No, that line of thought was pointless anyway, this was Eren Jaeger, the most stubborn boy Levi had ever met, and there was no way he’d reconsider something he’d so adamantly rejected already.

Levi chewed on his lip. This was such an unnecessary hassle. He didn’t want to deal with this.

As for Eren… It was weird that Eren hadn’t been more insistent. He was normally quite forceful when it came to things he got really excited about. Was it possible that maybe… he no longer wanted an expert to take a look? He’d mentioned a jeweler, but if they ended up claiming that none of their findings were valuable, Eren would be hugely disappointed. And any final answers would put an end to all of Eren’s daydreaming.

Levi sighed. That didn’t make sense either. Eren would rush straight ahead for answers, for anything he cared about, the possibility of disappointment not crossing his mind until it was too late (this had happened many times before, and would generally end with Levi calling him stupid before trying -pathetically – to cheer him up). He was the ‘motor’ of their duo, after all. Why hadn’t he already made up his mind then, and dragged Levi along in what would be “their great summer treasure adventure”, or something like that? 

Wait.

Eren was the motor… and he was the breaks. When something didn’t move forward, it was always his doing, wasn’t it? So… did Eren acknowledge Levi’s reluctance to follow him into this adventure, and therefore hold back from bringing the jewelry up as much as he’d have liked?

Levi hated the sound of that.

Or rather, he hated how he felt at the sound of that.

He surely shouldn’t have felt so warm and breathed easier at the thought of Eren looking out for what affected him.

Reassurance twisted into anger, turned towards himself. What kind of friend felt happy when their friends gave up something that made them excited, for them and their selfish reasons?

And since when did Eren give up on taking them both on adventures anyway? He was probably all wrong. There must’ve been something else.

Also. He probably should’ve answered Eren by then.

His messages were still staring him down, making him feel guilty for taking too long to answer.

Yeah well. What was he supposed to say to that? What was the proper answer? What was Eren expecting? Levi dragged his hands down his face. Okay, okay, okay. He had this. Dammit, Eren, he knew IM made him nervous. Though calling would have been so much worse.

Right. _Answer. The. Messages._

 **Levi** : What do you want to do?

He had no suggestions, so it was best to let Eren lead. Hadn’t Eren mentioned he had a new idea the night before? His message was probably just giving Levi a chance to speak up if there was something he had to say, but the kid already had a plan, didn’t he.

Eren was going to go through his plan step-by-step, to make sure Levi fully agreed. It was his way of being considerate. By explaining everything, he believed, he could make sure everyone involved fully understood what they were doing; and got to see why his plans were so brilliant.

Levi had tried learning from that, and had become more expressive over the years, though only towards Eren. The thing was, sometimes it got frustrating as hell – especially when they were both explaining their ideas to each other, and it took a million years before actually making a decision and putting it into action.

Mostly, though, Levi was grateful: it had probably avoided a lot of misunderstandings over time. They’d never had a case with one of them sulking, without the other understanding exactly what they’d done, or which point of a plan, had upset them.

 _Except this morning_ , Levi thought with a pang to the chest.

It wasn’t right. If something was bothering Eren, he’d want him to speak up. He should do the same.

_No._

Just thinking about it made him nauseous. What if he was right? What if Eren _was_ bored around him, and only hung out because there was no one else his age in the neighborhood?  Eren wouldn’t admit it to him anyway. There was no point.

His IM blinked up again.

 **Eren** : I wanna know where the treasure comes from. We need an expert to tell :<

 **Levi** : You got a name/address?

 **Eren** : Well ... …….

 **Eren** : the police could find one

 **Eren** : and theyd be the ones paying

 **Eren** : BUT

 **Eren** : that expert would only give a price estimate

 **Eren** : if it’s all valuable, we’d just get a % of the price :(

 **Eren** : and that would suck

Levi rolled his eyes (he didn’t need to suggest that reaction in his messages, because Eren would know regardless). Yes, they’d established that already.

 **Levi** : ok but then what?

 **Eren** : OR

 **Eren** : (and honestly this is so much better listen)

 **Eren** : (or like, read)

 **Eren** : We could look up the contact details of museums/cultural centers in town

 **Eren** : basically I went online and looked up what other people in our situation have done before

 **Levi** : pls tell me you didn’t refer to Yahoo Answers

 **Eren** : NO >:(

 **Eren** : anyway the 2 main options are the police or museums

 **Eren** : some museums could be interested in adding trinkets of value to their collections. if you bring your stuff to them they take care of the expertise and then you either sell to them or donate.

 **Eren** : from what I’ve gathered

 **Levi** : If they end up wanting the treasure, how can you trust the price they’d buy it for though?

 **Eren** : *shrugs* no choice really :s But it should be fine :D

 **Eren** : Here look

Eren proceeded to multi-message him link upon link to articles and blogs about people who’d discovered valuables in their fields or backyards. Valuables and… Levi squinted at his screen. A lot of very unexpected things, _weird_ things, seemed to pop up in people’s dirt.

 **Eren** : Also seems these people always make the news :D

 **Levi** : no.

 **Eren** : Hahahaha yeah no worries I knew you wouldn’t want that ;)

They carried on chatting for a while. Which Levi didn’t entirely understand. Eren lived less than five minutes away, if he wanted to talk he could’ve literally just come back over.

He knew it, Eren must have been getting tired of hanging out with him.

He cringed. Now he was going paranoid. Some people back in the dorms chatted online all the time, even though they lived two doors down from each other, out of sheer laziness. Eren was most likely comfortably curled up at home, and Levi couldn’t expect him to move.

Though that didn’t mean Eren _wasn’t_ getting tired of him either.

He was eventually given a reason to leave his keyboard, as he heard his mother move around in the next room, and he rushed to the kitchen to prepare some tea.

That night brought him very little rest. As he clenched his eyes closed, he couldn’t help but worry he was ruining his best and only friendship.

~~

Feeling sluggish and physically weighed down by the bags under his eyes, Levi groaned even as he accepted to meet up with Eren after lunch. He only left his bed just in time to make it, knowing he’d have hated himself more if he’d made up some excuse to not go (which Eren would have accepted without a second thought, because Levi never straight out lied to him).

Eren sat him down on a chair next to his at his desk. They spent some time browsing some more articles about discovered treasure, considering all of their options, and their consequences. Well, maybe only Levi really considered that second part.

“Who do you think ended up the happiest?”, Levi tried.

“So many of them just ended up dead,” Eren replied, somehow sounding impressed.

“Never mind.”

Levi twisted his fingers together in his lap. When would they be able to just go back to having imaginary adventures with imaginary problems, solved by the end of the day? This treasure of theirs was just a few broken pieces of dead people’s vanity, but they were starting to take a toll on his mind. He would’ve much rather been able to spend his time otherwise.

Or been able to get Eren’s attention back.

Wait.

A spark of irritation flicked through Levi. At himself, at their treasure, he was too exhausted to tell.

“Eren.” He took a deep breath. “Can we _please_ just take this to the closest police station? I really don’t want to even risk any problems with the law.”

Eren snapped around to face him. “No! And we already checked, we’ll be fine, as long as we don’t gain anything from the treasure while ‘knowing, suspecting, or having reasonable grounds for suspecting that the goods are stolen’,” Eren perfectly recited from a website Levi had made him check earlier.

“And you’ve gotta admit we have no reason to suspect anything, who’d want ‘filthy trash’ anyway.” He side-eyed Levi, making clear he’d heard what the other had muttered upon seeing their treasure spread out on a towel on Eren’s bedroom floor. “These have been lost for years.”

“Possibly after having been stolen!” Levi snapped, before flinching at his own voice. That wasn’t his point anyway.

“Still, if we just bring these to the police, our findings might as well have been a stupid old wallet, and our story isn’t gonna be that of some stupid old lost and found wallet!” Eren’s voice was rising, but Levi took no notice.

“This isn’t just some fucking made-up story of yours, Eren!” he spat, much harsher than he’d intended.

Eren froze for a moment, as if slapped by Levi’s words.

He recovered quickly. “I know that! I’m not _actually_ a child, you know?”

“Honestly, your attitude is often the same as one!”, Levi snapped.

And gasped. _Oh, **shit**_.

Irked by Eren’s tone, Levi had spoken before he’d had time to think. He’d regretted his words before they’d even finished leaving his mouth.

Eren was looking at him with a cold, distant glare.

“Oh really? And does it bother you every day? Maybe you should’ve said something, then. Well. Maybe you were hoping I’d gather that from your attitude lately. When was it, yesterday? Two days ago?”

Levi watched helplessly as Eren’s temper flared up – and how his friend fought against it. He could tell Eren was trying to reign himself in, for once, but he could read nothing beyond that.

He was worried sick instantly.

“Did you only just decide you can’t deal with me anymore? Would you rather I left your precious reality alone?” Eren gritted out, before falling silent.

He might have been waiting for a reply. Maybe he ran out of breath. Maybe he was grasping for words.

Levi couldn’t tell. He couldn’t do much at all, he was rendered speechless. His thoughts had scattered, he had no idea what to say, but he had to calm things down, what he’d said was out of line. Why the hell had he said that?

He’d messed up, and didn’t know how to fix it.

But apparently silence was not the right way to go, as it further exacerbated Eren’s temper. As if he were equally at loss, and desperate for some kind of reaction, anything, he stood up, knocking his chair back.

“Excuse me if I try to liven up our plain, small-town lives! Good for you, if you’re happy with doing nothing all summer! I’m sorry I get bored! But I suppose _you_ ’ _re_ all grown up now, got cooler, more mature university friends?”

Now that struck a nerve. 

Levi saw red. What the fuck.

What _ever_ was Eren talking about?  _He_ should be the one worried about losing Eren to new university friends, not the other way around. Why would it be the other way around? Imagine that, Eren, popular, fun, interesting Eren, worried about their friendship. Hardly likely.

A combination of guilt and frustration towards his own shortcomings, added to his fatigue, were less than ideal emotions for coming up with a decent answer.

“Well, excuse me if spending time with me is as plain and boring as I am!”

Eren’s eyes widened. He hadn’t been expecting Levi to spill his insecurities.

Neither had Levi.

But since it was out in the open…

“So that’s it? You’ve really been bored our whole lives?” Levi grew colder with panic with every word.

He knew he was being irrational, but he needed to see Eren’s reaction to them, needed him to provide some form of reassurance, needed to be shown things weren’t as bad as they were in his head.

He was being terribly petty, and it pained him to admit it to himself.

So he didn’t, and kept taking his stress out on Eren.

“Need the escapism a cool story would provide, to deal with having me as best friend?”

The cold Levi was enduring turned to heat, as the shame his selfishness was causing him finally let itself known. He _knew_ Eren wasn’t like that, Levi was just being hurtful. But he wanted so badly to hear Eren tell him he was completely wrong, that he wasn’t a pain to deal with – but Eren was stubborn.

“You’re being unfair, Levi,” Eren finally said, uncharacteristically calmly. “Just, stop. Seriously, I don’t understand where this is coming from.” A twitch of his brow suggested he might have had an idea, but he was refusing to deal with it.

Fine.

“You’re being stupid – and you know it.” Eren held up his hand as Levi opened his mouth to protest. “I don’t particularly feel like trying to reason with someone who only thinks I’m childish, anyway.”

Levi flinched at that, and Eren walked over to his door, that he held open.

“So come find me when you think we can actually talk about this as _equally civilized adults_.”

The last words were hissed out viciously, and contained all the venom Eren had evidently refrained from injecting into his entire speech.

Levi left, angry, hurt, anxious, and with only himself to blame.

~~

The evening was spent in utter misery.

Levi didn’t make a single attempt to convince himself it wasn’t.

He’d gotten home, brewed some tea, let it steep too long, thrown it out, and curled up in bed. He listened to the silence around him, and finally faced the full extent of his loneliness.

‘Finally’ might have been a bit of a strong word. Levi had never questioned his lack of friends because he’d had all the friends he could’ve ever asked for. Who was it who’d written, _‘A single being you lack, and all is emptied of people’_? Oh, right, it was from one of those French poems his mother studied in her free time. Lamartine. Or something. Whoever it was, that sentence summed it up. The world really did seem empty after only one person walked out of his.

Or threw him out of theirs.

Everything did seem dull and gray now. How dramatic was that? Eren really had rubbed off on him after all those years.

Did Eren like French poetry?

Eren. His bright eyes, that flicked around constantly, taking in the world around him and absorbing the details he liked into the vibrant world within him. His energy, the way he gave back to everything exciting, the way he always made everyone around him light up. His unwavering love of life was so inspiring to Levi.

Maybe it wasn’t him being dramatic, maybe life truly turned dull and gray without this bubbly boy.

 _Argh_ , Levi thought, pulling the covers over his head and burying his face in his pillow. Apparently his brain performed poorly even with oxygen, there was no great risk in cutting himself off for a bit.

Fucked. He was well and truly fucked.

And so terribly _, dreadfully_ scared of losing Eren.

How long had this fear been eating away at him? The different paces of their lives at university had forced him to acknowledge that deeply rooted terror. But it had most likely been latent their entire lives. What would he even do without Eren?

Well, actually, that was easy enough to answer. He’d go the same places. Meet the same people. Learn the same things.

But would it be any fun at all?

Probably about half as much as with Eren. At best.

He sighed, then frowned in discomfort, as his hot breath against the pillow burned against his face.

Trying to force Eren to ease his fears indirectly simply wasn’t the right way to go. It should have been obvious, and yet. He’d been a complete asshole for thinking risking a fight for some reassurance could have ever been worth it. Their argument had been incredibly foolish, and it was hard to accept he’d started something like that.

It was possible Eren hadn’t even been that surprised, though. While Eren got fired up in anger more often, when Levi snapped it was more aggressive, and more seemingly out of nowhere. No wonder Eren had immediately questioned his behavior as of late. Eren probably knew his antagonism was only partly due to the treasure. Eren knew him too well.

Which was great, it was great he could be himself around him, but it also sucked. It sucked, because while he _could_ go through life with Eren being angry at him for fucking up so bad, in not a single one of the many worlds in Eren’s head did he _want_ to.

Not even for a whole day.

~~

Early the next morning, after getting exactly zero hours of sleep, Levi forced his feet to bring him to Eren’s home.

He’d always been welcome at the Jaeger’s, but this was unusually early.

Fortunately, he was saved from throwing stones at Eren’s windows. He never would’ve dared, if he were being honest – surely that was just some stupid fictional trope, that would break the glass in real life.

As he came nearer, he found Eren stacking pebbles absentmindedly on his porch, with nothing but pajama shorts protecting him from the cool, crisp summer morning air.

“You’re gonna catch a cold.” It was out before Levi could think about it. A habit he really needed to work on.

Eren jumped, and hours of work were ruined as the pebbles clattered around him.

“It’s summer. I can’t. What are you doing here?” His glare was ruined by his messy hair – had he been struck by lightning in the past ten hours? – and the bags under his eyes.

Levi squirmed.

The previous evening had been far from their first fight. They’d fought about almost everything: where to go, who got a bigger serving of ice cream, how big a spoonful needed to be ‘just to taste’ said ice cream, how much time should be spent studying, how long should one spend on washing a plate…

Everything, except anything that really mattered.

Staring, Levi came to the painful realization that, again, he’d been wrong in his assumptions on how Eren would deal with their fight. He’d presumed Eren would just get angry, sleep it off, and maybe get in touch with other friends and make plans that didn’t involve him.

It never crossed his mind that he’d find Eren looking so… worried.

To hell with any hesitations. He had a wrong to right, and he sat down in front of Eren, on the porch steps, to do exactly that. Looking Eren in the eye as he apologized was important, he knew that. But it didn’t make it any easier, and he couldn’t help but face slightly to the side.

“I… I’m sorry.”

Eren only narrowed his eyes at him. “For…?”, he prompted.

Levi bit back a pained sigh. “For, uh… what I said yesterday,” he mumbled in a single breath. “All of it. Or, at least, uhm… anything hurtful. I -” he shifted to face Eren squarely “-didn’t mean it.”

“Okay, look,” Eren said, eyes still narrowed but no longer focused on Levi. He was obviously fighting with himself, his next words were going to carry a lot of weight, and he was picking them out carefully.

Levi waited patiently.

But in the end, Eren simply growled out in frustration, clearly dissatisfied with his final choice of words.

“Do you think I’m… immature?”

Oh.

He couldn’t pretend that question took him entirely by surprise. As unlike _Eren_ as it might have been, of course he’d have his own insecurities. And well… maybe Levi could come across as a bit harsh. Condescending even, sometimes. But he thought Eren would have known he never thought of him badly, not really.

At least, he’d never intended to make Eren feel bad for being himself.

Didn’t do so great on that front, huh.

Well. The topic of the moment was already apologies. It was probably best to finally state things clearly, rather than drag out the silence. Eren had begun to fidget.

“No. I don’t,” Levi murmured. “I don’t think you’re any less mature than I myself am, in any case.”

It was a struggle, but even if his thoughts were going to come up as half formed sentences, they deserved to be said.

“I’m sorry if I made you feel immature. I’m sorry if I ever acted in a way that made you feel… uh, if you thought I was angry, or something, because of how you were acting. I mean,” his voice wavered with his next words, that he rushed out, “I never was really. Angry.”

“Hey!” Eren cut in, with a tentative smile, oh, no, _Eren_ was trying to be comforting now, that was Levi’s job. “Hey, it’s okay. The thought hasn’t been making me feel miserable, like, I haven’t been feeling bad because of how you generally act or anything, it’s just… You know, I couldn’t really blame you if you thought I was immature.” His smile slipped away again.

“Hold up, what do you even mean? Eren, look at me. You’re not, you’re really not, believe me.”

“Oh, but I am, compared to you! Like, you’re always so organized, and calm, and you basically survive independently already - ”

“Eren, you know things are a bit different in my home than in yours. You’re right where you should be. You’re doing fine.”

“Ugh!” Eren ran his hands through his hair roughly. “This isn’t the issue anyway.”

“Seems to me it was part of it. In which case, again. I really don’t think it. I’m sorry you’ve been feeling that way. Just as I’m sorry for what I said yesterday.”

“It’s fine, just, uhm… Levi? About what you said about yourself…”

About what he –

Oh, no.

He’d forgotten about that.

He’d let all of his own insecurities slip, hadn’t he. Great.

“Forget about it, Eren, I don’t know where that came from.”

“No!” And then, much gentler, “Even if that were true, I think I might? Know where it came from, I mean.”

Levi knew his eyes were opened wide in terror. Which Eren jumped in to soothe.

“Look, Levi, I’m not actually so dense I never considered you might be a bit… unsure of yourself, sometimes? No, that’s not it. More like… You don’t give yourself enough credit. Ugh, how do I say this…” Eren sighed. “Why on earth would you think you’re boring? You think all the fun we have is one hundred percent on me? You think everything we ever do comes from my genius inspiration? Of course not! On campus, I’m like everyone else, just happy to stay in, watch movies, and only go out for food and drinks mostly.”

Levi momentarily forgot all about his anxiety at Eren having him all figured out. So… Eren didn’t just keep these games up with everyone?

“I can practically hear you think, Levi,” Eren said, actually ducking his face away for a second, and muttering, “It’s not common, is it, to still go outside and play like kids… But with you… uh, well, we’ve known each other since forever, so, if you’re still hanging out with me, you know what you signed up for.”

Eren looked up again. “I just want you to know, I don’t think you’re boring, or too quiet… or like, whatever you beat yourself up for. No, don’t – even if you _do_ know whatever flaws you think you have, I don’t judge you for them. Okay?”

Levi was speechless. He didn’t know what expression he was making, but whatever it was, it made Eren shuffle closer, and speak up again with a kind smile (and how was Levi supposed to function with that soft smile so close to him).

“Hey. I don’t want you to feel like you’re boring, or anything less than interesting. Probably same as you don’t want me to keep thinking I’m immature. You’re seriously the best person to just go do random things with, precisely _because_ you’re willing to join in without complaining about how we could be doing something else. You don’t cut down my ideas, you bounce your own off of them. And you…”

Eren paused to think for a moment. “Uhm, I should even thank you, I guess, for being so accepting of me, well at least of my crazy imagination, I do, uh, I appreciate that. A lot. About you.”

They remained sat, silently, in the cool summer morning air, staring at each other, as if wondering who should speak up next.

Levi was still at a complete loss of words. Eren would be able to guess he needed simpler concepts to respond to with words. And so he merely shifted his gaze back down to his well-worn shoes.

He heard Eren huff, a timid laugh, in front of him. “Hey, Levi, you know? You’d make an amazing character. A fan favorite. Or at least, my favorite. Definitely.”

Levi failed to bite back his own smile, at that. It only widened when his eyes caught Eren’s grin. “I hope I’d get some depth, and that I wouldn’t be remembered for only one personality trait,” he said.

“Yeah, don’t worry, you’d be more than just a 2D type of character, you’re worth more than that.”

“Wow, thanks.”

“Anytime.”

The teasing light in Eren’s eyes faded as he regained his serious composure from earlier. His brows furrowed, in a visible effort to choose his words with due care.

“So… anyway, if you tell me everything’s ok, like, you aren’t actually mad at me for my behavior and stuff, I’ll believe you. I’ll take it, I trust you.”

Levi looked up at Eren, briefly chastised himself for sitting on a lower step (he was always looking up at Eren, why make it worse this way), and simply nodded.

“I’m glad. I mean, we’ve gotten this far, it would’ve been weird to suddenly realize ‘oh, woops, guess we can’t get along with these personalities of ours’.” Eren stood up. “Thanks for coming over, it means a lot. And,” he exclaimed, louder, “it means we can get right back down to enjoying our break. Stay over, for a bit?”

They ended up chilling in Eren’s room, watching dumb youtube videos neither really cared for. But it was nice. The silence between them was comfortable, relaxing, even. Whenever Levi snuck a glance over, Eren had a small smile dancing on his lips. Levi could feel one tugging at the corners of his own mouth.

 Levi only barely remembered to go home to prepare lunch for him and his mother. He left, but not before giving in and promising Eren to come back as soon as possible. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> French vocab!  
> Mon trésor = my treasure, a very common affectionate, motherly nickname  
> Bisous = kisses
> 
> And as for the law surrounding finding buried treasure, selling, giving to museums etc: I am very loosely basing these rules on a blend of UK and some US State laws!!!! Things are a lot more complicated, but also extremely different irl. In Florida, finders keepers, you find it, it's all yours to do as you please; in France, if you find anything with potential historical value, it belongs to the State! So please do your own research if you find anything valuable, guys!!!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now Eren and Levi are finally cooperating, plans are made. Levi can enjoy the relaxing summer he'd been expecting - sort of. Meet Petra, your typical bubbly receptionist (or not) and quiet Armin (until Eren makes sure he speaks).

As much as he enjoyed taking his time drinking tea after a meal with Kuchel, Levi found himself rushing back to the Jaeger’s home the moment they were done.

He didn’t want to appear breathless on Eren’s doorstep, however, so he reined himself in and walked the whole way. If he wiggled strangely in his uncontrolled attempts to go faster, fifty kilometers race walk style, no one had to know.

He tried composing himself before knocking – which proved completely futile the moment his knuckles met the painted wood. The door instantly flew open, revealing an overexcited Eren, who grabbed Levi’s wrist and dragged him up to his room.

A very confused, and very flustered Levi was released by Eren’s bed, as Eren plopped down on his desk chair. Levi only hesitated a second before sitting down on the bed.

“Okay so!” Eren began, in a volume his mother would probably be tuning down very soon if he kept it up, “I’ve been doing some more research, for, uh… well… you know…” He fidgeted, but likely more out of excitement at finally announcing some big idea rather than in fear of Levi’s reaction.

Eren took a deep breath. “I found a museum in town that would probably accept to take a look at our treasure. I think… It might be for the best? It’s their job to teach us about history after all, so we’d get proper professionals to tell these jewels’ tale. Well, uhm, if there even is one.”

“Yeah,” Levi agreed, to everything, to anything at this point. “There… probably is something to learn,” he added, knowing Eren wanted to be sure Levi was okay with his plans.

He was thanked by the way Eren’s face lit up, even if it was only for a second.  

“But then – and it makes perfect sense, but it’s still an important ‘but’ – obviously, the museum will only take in charge the expertise if they’re guaranteed we’ll be selling, loaning or donating to them. I don’t think you mind of course, but yeah, we’ll have to say goodbye to this loot afterwards,” Eren sighed, one hand on his heart and the other waving towards the jewelry.

Their precious findings had lost all of their shine now they were all dried up, and really did look like a pile of rubble by then. Levi was wise enough to keep quiet, but he was glad it would find somewhere else to stay.

“The place I’m looking at isn’t too big or all that known, but it showcases all significant artifacts found in the region, from Shiganshina down south, to Nedlay in the north. I think the owner is really big on local history, so they display a wide variety of stuff, from fossils to pottery, and even eighteenth century pocket watches. Well, that’s what the website says. And actually, I might be confused, the giant local history nerd might be the sponsor - the place is sponsored by some local cultural society. Whatever.”

It was clear enough that Eren was already set on getting in touch with the place. That was fine. Good, even. Levi wasn’t planning on changing Eren’s mind (what a wasted effort that would’ve been, anyway). So he simply nodded along.

There wasn’t much more to do anyway. Eren’s eyes were sparkling, as he chirped away, giving Levi more information on their museum. He’d drawn up the website again, and was squirming with glee as he read the welcome page out. Levi failed to notice he was leaning in, trying to get closer to the bright energy Eren was emanating, and was climbing back onto the bed he’d slid off of when Eren turned back to him.

“Okay, then!” Eren bounced up from his chair, grabbed his phone, and with precisely no hesitation at all, dialed the number at the bottom of his computer screen.

Impressive. Levi lived with the firm belief _everyone_ feared the phone at least a little. He shook his head. _Guess not_. That was that, then, if even the phone couldn’t stop Eren from diving right into his ideas, nothing ever would. Levi had so much to learn from Eren. If only he could be more like that.

Eren was talking on the phone so easily. He was comfortable, chatting away, a smile on his face and a sincerely bubbly lilt to his voice. He really did have a nice voice. Which was probably the main reason Levi never minded that he spoke loudly most of the time. And part of the reason why he enjoyed hearing him tell his stories so much. It was strong, albeit more boyish than deep. It suited his face, but maybe a deeper voice would have been nice too? Levi was daydreaming in no time.

Before he knew it, Eren had chucked all of their treasure into a backpack, and his hand was wrapped around Levi’s wrist. Having blanked out on Eren’s entire conversation, Levi had no idea what was going on.

“Let’s go!” Eren cried, grabbing his mom’s car keys on the way out.

“What?”

“We’re going now! The woman on the phone said they’re open, and apparently she would be able to show our gold to an expert later today, so get moving!”

Eren dumped the backpack on Levi’s lap as he started up the car.

“Since when are you allowed to drive again?”, Levi asked warily.

“Shush, just relax,” Eren said, lips quirking up.

“Oh my god, this is how I die,” Levi muttered, as he clung to the handle above his door.

~~

Eren parked the car (still intact, with both driver and passenger still alive) near the city center, and led Levi to the right street, following the indications on his phone.

The museum was indeed a modest one. It didn’t particularly stand out, and no doubt was it less well known than others in the same area. While it was in the city center, it was hidden in a quiet alley. Dark stone walls, heavy glass doors that led to an interior too obscure to peer into, the museum was discreetly nested between two buildings of no distinct purpose.

Eren walked in confidently, and was greeted by a short receptionist with strawberry blond hair. “Eren, I presume?” She welcomed them with the smile that all museum owners wished their receptionists had. But the fact that she immediately knew who Eren was said a lot about the amount of visitors they received, Levi thought.

The receptionist introduced herself as Ms. Petra Ral (“But just call me Petra!”), and seemed as excited as Eren about their meeting. She spoke highly of the museum’s collection, evidently taking a lot of pride in her job.

“So, Eren,” she said, getting down to business at last, after unnecessary long chit-chatter (in Levi’s humble opinion), “May I see what you’ve brought me?”

Eren handed over the backpack.

Petra peered inside, asking “You’ve washed these, I imagine?”

“With soap and water, individually washing each piece for at least one minute,” Eren replied.

It sounded rehearsed, and why did he feel the need to give so much detail, he could’ve just said yes. Levi shot Eren a look, and found him glancing back, with a proud grin.

Almost as if he thought Levi would be impressed.

(He was.)

“Well, I’m no expert, but I’m very close to one – oops, well, that’s not wrong, but I meant to say, I work very closely to one,” Petra giggled, with a wink. “Hmm, let’s see…” She pulled a few pieces out of the bag and held them up. “It needs some more brushing up, there’s still some deeply incrusted dust and particles possibly clouding up details. You said you found this in a river in your backyard?”

“Uhm,” Eren rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, “more like a stream going through the back of our property, Ma’am.”

Petra’s high pitched giggle rang out again. “Seriously, just call me Petra, I’m only old enough to be your sister, not your grandma. Ugh, they were right, we should’ve gotten nametags…”

Petra seemed to space out for a minute, before coming back with renewed solemnity.

“You mentioned you considered giving this to the police. Well, I don’t want to give you any false hope or anything, but I’m sure glad you didn’t. This may or may not have quite a lot of worth,” she leaned in close, as if to conspire. “I can’t say for sure of course, but I’ll be handing this over to someone who most certainly can. I promise you, they’ll be a lot more accurate in their analysis than anyone the police could possibly get their hands on.”

Levi could see the glimmer of pride in Petra’s eyes as she spoke. The young woman certainly had a lot of esteem for this person. Maybe this museum was a very good call after all.

Petra straightened up, and with a flick of her wrist, invited them to follow her around her welcome desk. She held open a massive wooden door as if it were nothing, and invited the two boys into what appeared to be the museum’s staff and storage room.

The wall to their left was entirely covered in shelves, upon which huge cardboard boxes were stacked and sinking into each other. Desks and drawers lined the back wall and the one to their right, but were barely visible under the piles of papers, plastic bags and Tupperware boxes visibly thrown down without any thought. Random objects had missed the surfaces all together, and laid haphazardly on the floor. A small water fountain stood by the door. 

Levi wondered if it really was better to see this than to be blind.

Petra walked through the clutter on the floor as if it didn’t exist. Force of habit, most likely. She reached over to low, elegant black drawers – the only furniture in the room left with a somewhat level surface on top. It would have probably been safe to bet this was what Petra had claimed as her own space.

“As I mentioned, I can show your findings to an expert later today,” she said, ruffling through a middle drawer, “but you’ll understand you need to fill in some forms first. Just so we’re all agreed on what exactly you’ve left with me, and for what purposes.”

She handed them two sheets of paper, to be filled in identically with the usual identity information along with a description of the goods. A section on the rights granted to the museum followed next. As expected, they would no longer be able to keep their treasure once the museum would have carried out their own examination. Or at least, not without paying important fees.

“Sign at the bottom if you agree to the rights we acquire, if you leave it up to us to consult an expert. I’ll do the same.” She proceeded to do exactly that; then, using a stamp and the required ink found in her top drawer, pressed the museum’s emblem onto both papers. “Oh, and if one of you could be sure to leave me a phone number I can easily contact you at, on the form you’ll be returning to me, that’d be great.”

Levi was happy to sign as long as Eren was. The thing was, Eren had obviously signed too fast. There was no way he’d read the terms and conditions, or whatever they called the legal section of the forms.

Ah well. As much as it wasn’t in his nature to trust easily, Levi felt Petra shouldn’t cause them too much trouble. And all Eren wanted was the story behind their treasure, not the treasure itself.

Levi signed the forms.

~~

Petra offered them a free tour of the museum while they were there.

As was exactly her plan, Levi supposed, it comforted the boys further in their intention to give their findings to the place. Eren darted from display to display, excitedly calling for Levi to catch up, and teaching him where various artifacts came from (“Look, this would’ve been from where our primary school is!”). Never mind that Levi could have read the explanatory notes himself (he, for one, certainly didn’t mind).

The petite receptionist had her signature smile back on as she concluded their tour and meeting.

“So don’t you worry, your treasure is in safe hands,” she said, walking them back to the glass doors.

“So it _is_ treasure!”, Eren shouted.

Levi face-palmed.

Petra laughed brightly. “Well, that was a matter of speech, but maybe it is.” She winked at Levi, who suddenly felt like he owed her thanks for her very diplomatic answer.

“Our expert is a bit, ah, eccentric…” A soft expression crossed over her features, and Levi absently noted how sweet and gentle it made her look. Then it was gone again, the professional smile back in its place. “But I’ll make _sure_ that they get back to you within the next two weeks. Even if some other big discovery comes up, you _will_ _come first_.”

She grinned, but Levi was under the impression she was bracing herself for a fight.

He had the feeling she would win.

“Well, you have our number. Call whenever you like, I’ll answer everything I can!”

The boys thanked her with various levels of awe and enthusiasm, and stepped back outside.

The weather had improved significantly in the area. Patches of blue sky were coming into sight between lighter clouds. The summer sun was still relatively mild, though. At least Kuchel wouldn’t have to bring an umbrella to work every day, ‘just in case’, if things kept up.

Levi suddenly turned to Eren. It was highly unusual that he’d been left to muse about the weather in peace. Even more so after they’d finally moved forward in Eren’s plans.

“Eren? What’s up?”

“I really liked the museum. It’s like… Our town has a great story to tell, and the museum is making sure it is. I just… I really _really_ like it.”

“Oh. That’s good, then.” Levi waited. Eren had been deeply impressed by something, which meant the excitement was coming in three… two… one…

Eren whooshed past him, skipping and bouncing excitedly.

“Levi!”, he called, “I don’t wanna get my hopes up too bad, but this is awesome! We might’ve found something important! Something with a real story!”

His eyes grew wider than ever, gleaming as he thought about his own words. It’d be creepy if those eyes weren’t so beautiful.

“Yeah well… we’ll know for sure pretty soon.” As calm as he was trying to appear, giddiness was gaining Levi too, and had to hold back from skipping along with Eren.

“But can you imagine if this is all linked to some famous historical drama? Maybe it was a fleeing Queen’s jewelry. Why was she running? What did those jewels mean to her? Or maybe that’s not it at all, maybe they were a gift for another country’s rulers, and the carriage transporting them fell over on the way. Or maybe - ”

“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t get carried away?”, Levi teased.

Eren’s face scrunched up, as if he were deeply offended by his own past words.

“Ugh, nah, screw that I’m gonna go crazy, and maybe one of my theories will be right! Gosh, Levi, could you imagine, what if…”

Given the sheer amount of theories he came up with by the time they got back to the car, it was more unlikely the jewelry had _not_ been involved in some story Eren had mentioned.

~~

During the two weeks that followed, Eren and Levi fell into a lazy routine.

Nothing more was expected of them in their first few weeks of summer break anyway. Though Carla and Kuchel had been surprised to hear they weren’t going to travel.

“Aren’t you young people all about road trips?” Carla had asked them.

“I dunno, mom, maybe some other time?” Eren had absently replied.

“I used to be all about road trips.”

“Mhm.”

“Your dad too.”

“That’s nice, mom.”

“The idea still sounds lovely, now.”

“Sure does.”

“I’m sure Kuchel loves road trips!”

“Uh, probably, when she had the time,” Levi tried.

“Kuchel and I should go on a road trip!”

Carla had put down her whisk in favor of grabbing her phone.

Eren and Levi had agreed they wanted to hang around town, where some of Eren’s university friends would be staying too.

There was something soothing, familiar, about the routine that settled in. Levi knew the places, knew the people. With Eren staying by his side (or vice versa), he never grew bored.

Eren would appear on his doorstep after breakfast, as enthused by the day to come as when they were kids. Which was rather impressive. They no longer got new roller blades or bikes to try out and ride around all day. But Eren would without fail have something to show Levi, or someplace he wanted to go every new day.

Noon would systematically find them starving, after running around all morning.

Over lunch either grabbed in town or packed before heading out, Eren would show off what he’d learned over his first year at university. As he flaunted his vast amounts of knowledge, he seemed to take note of Levi’s limited awareness of politics, choosing instead to tell the stories of the world they lived in as if they were only that. Stories. Levi appreciated the effort. He appreciated listening to Eren talk about politics.

Which definitely meant he’d enjoy listening to Eren talk about anything.

In the afternoon, Eren dragged Levi around to whatever he needed, or felt like, doing. On some days, this meant trips to the public library to return books. Of course, it could never be the quick stop Eren promised it would be.

He’d walk over to the shelves, confident Levi would follow (he would), and ask for his opinion on what to read next. Why Eren would do that, Levi had no idea. He knew far less books than Eren, after all.

He looked carefully at covers and titles, and carried out close inspections of summaries on the back, sometimes going so far as to read a few pages, to make sure his choice for recommendation was well written.

Which sent Eren into a fit of giggles more than once.

“It’s not a matter of life or death! I just wanna know what you’d pick!”, he’d laugh and laugh, earning them a chorus of shushes from other readers, if not from the librarians.

In return, Eren always accompanied Levi to the grocery store, which often just resulted in Eren picking his own dinner. Levi was thrilled to have him over that often. He fell asleep wondering what dish he could make Eren try next time.  Every time Eren expressed how much he loved his cooking, his stomach swooped. Carla was less thrilled, however – when she realized just how often Eren was eating at Levi’s, she invited Levi to stay with them for a month in return.  

The rare breaks from their routine came in the form of music echoing off neighbors’ walls, red plastic cups, and the smell of barbecue smoke and alcohol.

Levi didn’t believe there was a single person out there who could escape summer parties. Especially not with a friend like Eren. And if there was, they needed to teach him their secrets.

Levi was introduced to Eren’s classmate Erwin, who initially royally pissed him off, with his extravagantly good manners, that by no means could be either natural nor sincere. But he was forced to (reluctantly) admit that Eren was right – Erwin was an intelligent man who could carry the conversation all on his own. Levi ended up drifting over to chat with him more often than he’d have liked to admit.

Erwin happened to know the blond kid in Levi’s classes – Armin, that was it, Armin! – who hit it off with Eren about as well as Levi had expected. Meaning, his quiet voice went completely ignored, until some old book Levi must have missed came up.

Their routine was broken because during those evenings, Eren would turn into the quiet one. Quiet, but ready to fight anyone who’d dare interrupt Armin, while he shared his opinions on novels Eren hadn’t even heard of.

Levi was left to keep an eye on his friend from the corner of the room. Which was how he met Mikasa.

 While they were both clearly content to assess each other from afar for a couple of evenings, conversation became inevitable, as their tendency to both shadow Eren became apparent. She was a woman of few words, and of no forced pleasantries. All the opposite of Erwin, really.

Levi didn’t mind her offstandish nature. If anything, it made him think they probably had at least a bit in common.

Which meant he could learn a lot by observing her.

Did he also stare that intently at Eren?

For Mikasa, it seemed to be a bad case of resting bitch face – she kept that same strict and close eye on a couple of others too (notably a duo of trouble-makers in her group of friends).

But Levi didn’t need telling to know that only Eren ever caught his gaze that way.

Eren flitted around, from one loosely huddled group of people to the next, instantly welcomed into conversation everywhere he drifted, sparking outbursts of laughter, reigniting conversation. His smile even melted the harsher lines on Mikasa’s face, softened the disapproving glare towards his – and everyone’s – cup.

Every time Eren glanced in his general direction, Levi hoped he’d head his way next.

And hope would light up his entire stupid face.

Those evenings weren’t as bad as Levi had initially dreaded. The days were increasingly warm, the moonlit backyards and cool breeze were inviting, if you ignored the ruckus the guests were making. But the best part would always be driving back home, windows open, radio off, crossing the sleeping town to Eren’s voice. He’d tell Levi all about how his friends were doing, or what mischief he and a few others managed to get into in the brief moments they escaped Mikasa’s and Levi’s gazes.

Overall, those days went by swimmingly. In fact, Levi could have been perfectly relaxed if not for two fine points.

  * Constant wondering about what news they were going to get from the museum and
  * Minor but rapidly accumulating changes in Eren’s behavior.



There seemed to be details in the pattern of his routine he didn’t notice, until he did.

And suddenly, they were impossible to ignore.

Eren was definitely settling far closer to him on the couch than he used to. Whenever he shifted, their arms or thighs brushed, and Levi learned movies could only be understood with at least one foot of distance between him and Eren.

And did Eren lean his way a lot, or was he being paranoid? He was sure he wasn’t hallucinating the frequent glances Eren stole his way at least. What was going on, it used to be the other way around! Well, it still was, Levi did look Eren’s way often, but the point was, when Levi got caught, he had the decency to turn away. Eren merely grinned, a dazzling grin that was, completely unashamed. It made Levi tense up, heart fluttering, and look away, as if he were the one caught doing something wrong.

Movie nights were all ending with Levi kicking Eren away, grumbling about Eren’s excessive body heat. Or at least they were, until Levi realized with a shiver that the AC was being put on stronger and stronger.

The worst part (definitely _worst_ , yes, as in, something he did _not_ enjoy, no sir), was how long it was suddenly taking Eren to say goodbye in the evening.

So Levi had been letting Eren make plans for the day. So Eren set the pace of their summer break.

It didn’t mean Levi would let him hang out in his kitchen for as long as he liked, because then Eren might as well move in.

He’d always been bad at sticking to the time he’d promised his mother he’d leave at. But he was passing out on Levi’s couch later and later, and when he’d wake up, he’d ask Levi to “walk me home, please,” begging and claiming “anything could happen to me out there,” Levi waiting patiently while he recited every horror film trope ever.

Knowing the speech by heart didn’t actually make Levi immune to it. By the time he found himself outside, walking back home on his own, it was far too late to wonder how he’d gotten there, and when exactly did things go all wrong in his life.

But the thoughts echoing around his skull were too loud to ignore.

Did he really mind Eren sitting so close to him? Of course he did. The boy was a living furnace. He made it hard to breathe. The warmth he emanated was suffocating. Come to think of it, though, it was sort of strange how summer heat never felt quite like that. Even stranger, how difficult breathing was despite the AC being on max.

Did he really mind catching Eren’s gaze on him? ‘Mind’ might not have been the best word. It was more like it caused… an itch. The need to ask what Eren was thinking in those moments. But at the same time, he was afraid of his friend’s answer. Unless perhaps the clenching of his heart was due to something other than fear.

Did he really mind Eren staying over until unreasonable hours? On one hand, it was nice of Eren to keep him company during his mother’s long absences. He must’ve been trying to hang out until Kuchel came home again, possibly to thank her for letting him come over so much. On the other hand… They’d been friends since forever. There was no way Eren didn’t realize it was impossible for him to be out until Kuchel got home every night.

Levi turned these thoughts over in his head as he headed up to bed. There was a limit to how deeply in denial he could be.

Convincing himself he did mind was going far beyond that limit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> /!\ Eren only drinks a bit, and he DOES NOT DRIVE BACK, Levi takes care of that. Thank. 
> 
> I got waaay carried away with the forms Petra could possibly make the boys fill in, and procedures, and different fees for different types of expertise, and basically ended making up my own legal system. Be grateful it didn't make the final cut :')


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short glimpse into Trost's local history!  
> Eren gets to ask all his questions, and an opportunity to tell more stories.

The call from the museum came one morning, as they were headed out of Levi’s house.

At the sudden vibrations in his pocket, Eren jumped a mile and hurried to answer. Clearly he’d never even considered over the past week and a half that anyone but Petra might call him.

Except the loud voice bursting through the phone was not that of the sweet receptionist.

This did not disturb Eren nearly as long as it should have. Whatever he was being told made his eyes widen almost as much as the smile on his face. Or maybe he was just getting carried away by the overenthusiastic tone blasting right through to Levi’s ears too.

Sounded like Eren had met his match.

Or at least, he was about to, Levi thought, as he chased after Eren, who’d suddenly sprinted back over to his own driveway.

In the car, at a speed just above the one authorized, Eren babbled away about what he’d learned over the phone. All they needed to know for now was that they really had found valuable and awesome (“awesome?” “yeah they really said that”) objects, and that their history was so interesting, the archaeologist on the line thought they should “come over to talk immediately”.

“You idiot, you got too hyper and didn’t actually get any information, did you?” Levi smiled, counting on Eren to keep his eyes on the road and miss it.

He was close to accusing Eren of making up the “immediately” part of the archaeologist’s words, but given the tone Levi caught all too easily – in spite of standing a yard away from the phone – they were as excited as Eren, and most likely did say that.

Levi could also guess that Petra was the one who’d concluded the call, to ask more politely when it suited the boys to swing by. That would have prompted Eren’s shouting “Now! We’re coming right now, don’t move!” as he’d leapt into the driver’s seat.

Eren’s buzzing energy was still as contagious as ever, however, and Levi felt dazed. Huh. So there really was a story worth hearing behind it all then.

A wave of relief washed over Levi. Thank goodness he didn’t actually make Eren dump it all back into the river. Or hand it over to the police.

The relief was briefly accompanied by a pang of guilt. And shame. He shouldn’t have even considered those options at all.

But the dancing lights in Eren’s eyes as he flashed him a quick grin said it was all forgiven.

~~

Eren leapt out of the car the moment it was immobile and dashed for the museum.

Of course he’d forget to pay for parking. Levi trudged over to the rusty parkometer, paid the fee, and sighed, before running after his friend for the second time that morning.

He didn’t have quite the same amount of enthusiasm backing his running as Eren did, and so he suspected – correctly – he arrived a respectable amount of minutes after his friend. He pushed through the already familiar glass doors to find Petra standing by her welcome desk, waiting for him.

She was upon him in an instant, ushering him towards the little staff room behind her, while briefing him about what he’d missed. Levi felt like a CEO late to an important conference.

“Hange – your expert, that is – just finished explaining the whole ancient artifact cleaning process to Eren,” she whispered. “You’ll get approximately sixty seconds to admire your treasure at leisure, so to speak, before they launch into their next explanation.”

To Levi’s inquisitive glace, she simply said, “Look, it’s too much effort to get Hange to wait for anything or anyone, but honestly, it was smart of you to arrive lat- now. Now is good.”

Seeing Levi hesitate to reach for the door (or the newborn fear in his eyes, perhaps), she gave him a firm push. “Go on, go on!”

The strength he felt in that push should have set off alarm bells, regarding the actual weight of the door before him. Yet, he was still taken aback by the resistance it put up to being opened. What was this door even made of? Was this really the same one tiny Petra had pushed open with ease less than two weeks ago? Levi was unsure whether he was more impressed or terrified.

That line of thought died the moment the unnaturally heavy door slammed shut behind him.

His eyes were drawn to Eren first, a habit he wouldn’t qualify as either good nor bad; a habit he’d rather not dwell upon at all, in fact (but a habit nonetheless). But then, he noticed Eren’s expression of pure awe, and his eyes finally cooperated, accepting to leave Eren’s face, and follow his gaze instead.

A small surface had been cleared on one of the tables along the wall to Levi’s right. That on its own would have deserved a certain amount of amazement, Levi thought, until he noticed how the objects that used to occupy that space now cluttered the floor.

Eren’s attention was never captured by the way desktops were organized anyway. His eyes had found his treasure, and looked like they never wanted to glance away again.

Sitting on top of an old piece of cloth (or a rag, if Levi were to make an honest guess), what used to be clumps of dirt and rocks, with bits of gold timidly shining through, were now proudly defined pieces of jewelry or decorations. Now this certainly was treasure, treasure that would have drawn anyone’s eye.

Well, at first glance, at least. The trinkets weren’t perfectly ridden of earth and flecks of stone. Some were no more than odd chunks of gold bent out of shape, broken perhaps, irrecoverably damaged, certainly.

But those pieces were outweighed by those that had now revealed a more refined form. Here, a ring, displaying colorful gems all around its band; there, a heavy golden pendant with intricate engravings; bracelets, brooches, earrings, and other delicate ornaments, of a sophistication he’d never seen before (but what did Levi know about jewelry after all).

He probably looked fairly bored, especially compared to Eren, but he had to admit their collection wasn’t looking bad at all.

He’d unconsciously come to stand next to Eren, but was suddenly interrupted in his reverie by an excited cackle coming from the corner of the room, behind them.

“See, see? Aren’t you glad I told you to get over here as fast as possible? Bet you didn’t think that your rock collection would turn out to be this special, huh? Ah ha ha! I bet you still have no idea how valuable this is!”

Levi turned around to face a tall figure (though most figures seemed tall, to him) clapping their hands with excitement.

“Also, I might add that you were very lucky to call us,” they continued, “Not every place in town would admit to your findings’ worth.” They wrinkled their nose, before grinning, and stretching a hand out to Levi. “Levi, right? Dr. Zoe, they/them pronouns, please. Nice to meet you.”

Levi let his gaze travel up. The tone in which they spoke had Levi steeling himself, expecting to meet facial expressions similar to Eren’s. Especially after the way their palpable enthusiasm had matched over the phone.

He was almost thrown off by how differently their faces conveyed their passion, which was a stupid thing to be thrown off by.

Eren’s joy, his intensity, painted itself all over his face. Dr. Zoe, as for them, carried a manic gleam lodged in their chocolate brown eyes, as if all of their emotions were expressed through those two pupils, pupils that then challenged the rest of Dr. Zoe’s features to catch up. Their wide grin almost managed, but not quite.

The expert was dressed in a long and wrinkled white button-up, which might have reminded Levi of a lab coat, but without the same professionalizing impact. Loose faded jeans completed the overall frazzled look.

Eren, who’d seemed completely out of it for the past couple of minutes, snapped back to his senses. A functional Eren was a curious Eren.

“So… we’ve been wondering… Does this all come from Trost?”

The archaeologist pushed up thick rimmed glasses further up their forehead. Levi hadn’t even noticed they had glasses, buried as they were under a thick layer of messy bangs.

“No! Trost couldn’t be where these elaborate babies were made. They would have required too many hours of careful, skilled work. However,” the sang, dragging out the ‘ow’ in ‘however’, “Trost must have been where they’d been sold. Or almost were. See, once upon a time, your little town – I’m guessing you’re from there? – was a community of very wealthy merchants. Emphasis on _very_. Nobles from Sina would come buy whatever they fancied there, or they’d send over their servants… eh, well, as long as they had money to spare.”

Levi frowned. Merchant towns? Nobles?

Eren was one step ahead of him. “Wait, so how old are these?”, he asked, waving towards the jewelry. “And how long do you think they’ve been sitting in the dirt, then?”

Petra had suggested Dr. Zoe had at least a few explanations in store for them. Sounded like they had answers to every question Eren and Levi might shoot at them, and more. They were just waiting for them to ask, weren’t they.

The wicked grin flashing across Dr. Zoe’s face told Levi he was right.

“Excellent questions!” they announced. “Okay, so, the first clue to consider, to find out how old these pieces are, is the gold alloy used. I dunno how much you boys know about gold karats? Twenty-four karat gold means your purchase is one-hundred percent gold. Unlikely, as you’ll only find that on bullion bars. Now, eighteen karat is the most commonly found gold on the jewelry market.”

Levi and Eren blinked at each other, then stared blankly at the expert.

This did not deter them in the slightest.

“The thing is, nowadays, the percentage of gold jewelry that isn’t gold will be either silver or copper. And it’s been this way for about two centuries. But this – these have a completely different composition.”

Levi watched as Dr. Zoe’s brows furrowed and they fell silent. It was like watching a computer install updates, he could see data in numbers and codes flicker through their eyes. So much information flew by right in front of him, without him being able to understand any of it.

“See,” Dr. Zoe said finally, “the point in mixing other metals into gold, aside from making it cheaper, of course, is to help harden it. Twenty-four karat gold is very malleable. Most of this is twenty-two karats, by the way, so it’s still pretty bendy. Which might explain why so many pieces stayed intact. But the metal mixed into here…”

They marked a dramatic pause.

“Well, this particular metal hasn’t been in use for at least three hundred years.”

“Three hundred years,” Eren gasped.

“Yup. And the Maria region, dominated by Sina – yeah, the tourist town – and to which Trost has always belonged, is actually where most of this historical metal comes from.  I know I’m supposed to say it’s just ‘not in use’ anymore, but honestly, the records suggest man simply forgot how to make it. And the earth certainly doesn’t just produce it. But that’s a mystery for another day,” the winked. “For now…”

Dr Zoe strode over to loom over the boys. In a flash, they grabbed their shoulders, spun them around, and shoved them forward, forcing them to stoop low over the table.

“Come on, don’t be shy, these are your babies, don’t be afraid to get your face all nice up close and personal!”, they sang gleefully.

The door swung open as Levi wondered whether Dr. Zoe considered every single object in the museum as a part of their family.

“Hange!”

Petra appeared in the doorframe. _Save us_.

“Here’s your coffee! And I can hear you loud and clear through the door, I was tempted to make it decaf.”

‘Hange’ made hissing noises as they snatched up their mug. Petra ignored them, turning to Eren and Levi instead.

“Boys, do you want any?”

Both shook their heads, noses brushing over the tabletop, as neither of them dared straighten up.

“Thanks, beautiful!” Hange called after her, causing the receptionist to huff, half an exasperated sigh, half a giggle.

Levi almost made the exact same sound, as Eren raised his voice to question Dr. Zoe again, like a child jealous of their parent’s attention.

“So, what should we be looking at exactly? More time-period clues?”

Levi wasn’t sure how they could be expected to find anything, as he went cross-eyed from trying to focus on the jewelry from so close up.

Dr. Zoe nodded so violently as they drank, they dunked their face into their coffee. Then they magically appeared right back at the boys’ side, mug left to balance precariously on the nearest available surface (Petra’s drawers, naturally). A magnifying glass held by a steady hand landed over one of the pieces Levi was having more trouble identifying.

It was at least the size of his palm. The outline of a wide-petaled golden flower surrounded a unique bead. An identical, larger outline framed the ensemble. There was no pin, or broken off section where one could have been. The trinket was not a brooch.

“This,” Dr. Zoe explained, “was an old religious symbol, for some obscure local cult. We’re not exactly sure what deities the members prayed to, but from what’s been found, historians and theologians believe there were three. See? The bead at the center would’ve supposedly represented a deity watching over Sina; the first frame, the deity looking after its immediate surroundings, and the second, the deity protecting the entire region. It’s all guesses though, and vague ones, as you can tell.”

Dr. Zoe was visibly dissatisfied with the lack of information.

“So… was this a decoration?” Eren prompted.

“Hmm? Oh, no, see, had that been the case, the side meant for display would have been more refined that the side meant for the wall, or whatever surface the decoration would’ve been destined to. Both sides of this piece were carefully worked on. I’m almost certain it was, in fact, a pendant.”

They took a step back, which Eren and Levi took as silent authorization to straighten up at last. Out of the corner of his eye, Levi caught Eren fidgeting. If he’d been that uncomfortable, he should have said something.

“Every single one of these pieces is jewelry. Yeah, even this massive cutie here,” they said, reaching between Eren and Levi to pick up the object they’d been scrutinizing. “This would have been proudly worn by a wealthy man of the upper classes. Except…”

“Except that would look absolutely stupid,” Levi couldn’t help but blurt out. Oops.

Dr. Zoe’s grin widened. “Exactly!” they exclaimed. “Now, tell me why you think that!”

They didn’t even give Levi time to consider the question before answering it themselves.

“Because it’s out of fashion, of course! And-“ _And Petra was going to barge in again if they kept talking louder and louder_ , “And it just so happens that it has been for over four hundred years.”

They carried on quickly, and Levi couldn’t have said whether it was because of his puzzled expression, or if they would have carried on regardless.

“Frankly, I could have said the jewelry was more than two hundred years old, even without checking the alloy, but hey, procedures, am I right.”

Levi doubted they actually followed procedures, for some reason.

They sighed. “Just…look at this style! Those curves, the cut of the stones, the sheer weight of each piece!”

Levi had no idea what they were talking about. A quick glance to his right confirmed that Eren was just as lost as he was.

“Don’t you see? Wearing very showy, heavy, and honestly inconvenient ornaments was all the rage under Sina’s monarchy. But! This sort of religious wear completely died out when the Monarchy divorced the Clergy, so to speak… _four hundred years ago_. Turned out, the Nobles loved their King more than they loved their Gods.”

“Makes sense, since the King was the one dishing out death sentences,” Levi muttered.

Eren frowned. “So no one would have wanted these after that… this would’ve lost all value.” His expression was darkening at a worrying speed. “So were these just thrown away? Is that the end of the story?”

He looked distraught. Levi caught himself praying those forgotten deities that that was not the end of the story.

“NOT AT ALL!” Hange cried out, causing Levi to jump. In the few seconds of suspense they left, Levi quickly thanked the deities.

“What I’m saying is, we can say for sure that your collection here is at least over four hundred years old. _So far_.”

Levi could feel the excitement radiate off Eren as they realized they were still in for more. It was funny how the glint in Dr. Zoe’s eyes should have been terrifying, but, as used to Eren’s passionate speeches as he was, he wasn’t as annoyed as he probably should have been.

He was definitely paying close attention because this was all very interesting, and not just because Eren was having the time of his life.

“Given the value of twenty-two karat jewelry, only the highest levels of society, the crème de la crème, could have afforded anything in that collection of yours… I went so far as to assume only the King and his Court would wear anything like this.” They stepped between the two friends, and picked up a brooch, one of the more thoroughly brushed up pieces.

“And the Court’s jewels couldn’t possibly go without the Court’s jewelers…” They tossed the brooch up and caught it without looking. “And jewelers come with hallmarks.”

Fierce delight flashed across the expert’s features, evidence of the joy they found in discovering the key to these historical mysteries. Levi shivered; there was something dark and worrying in that expression. But within a second it was gone, replaced with almost childish glee.

“Of course, your collection could have been a gift from a neighboring country, but we’re in luck this time around.”

Eren was hanging on Dr. Zoe’s every word. Levi smiled. And instantly regretted it, because the expert did not need the encouragement to launch themselves into another long tirade.

“Put simply, in these parts of the world, maker hallmarks as we know them today were introduced approximately six hundred years ago. Before that, Royalty was only just making up the concept. You know.” They spoke agitatedly, waving their hands about. “Something to control the percentage of silver or gold that actually went into their jewels. So, each ruler imposed their own hallmark on every jeweler they ruled over. And before that, eight hundred years ago or so, well, there wouldn’t have been such a thing, but neither would there have been this style of objects anyway.”

They concluded their lecture with a victorious stare down at the goods spread out before them.

Eren’s face was glowing, and he bounced from foot to foot.

“So you found a hallmark? Oh my god, oh my god, how obvious are they, can I see one?” Before he’d even reached the end of his question, he was turning a ring around in his hands.

“Eren, put that down,” Levi hissed. His friend looked down, pouting, and Dr. Zoe burst out laughing.

“No, go ahead, go ahead, be curious, go and get your answers! I’m not gonna stop you,” they smiled, wiping tears from their eyes.

“But won’t our hands tarnish them?”, Levi inquired, thinking about all those ‘Do Not Touch’ signs he’d seen plastered all over the museum’s walls.

“Nope, not when they’re twenty-two karat pieces. Silver would have been a different story… But gold will keep well. As it already has, really.”

They stretched their hand out, with the brooch they’d been throwing and catching nested face down in their palm.

“I managed to clean this piece up nicely. Here you have it!”

Eren and Levi leaned in, Levi’s awareness narrowly saving them from knocking their foreheads together.

And there they had it indeed.

By a bump where the brooche’s pin probably went, stamped into the gold forever…

“It’s a… uhm… A triangle?”, Eren tried.

Levi squinted, which didn’t actually help much at all.

Cursing, Eren snatched up the brooch and brought it right up to his eyes.

“A triangle, but like… with stripes… stripe-y,” he corrected his former statement.

“Huh?” Levi was even more eloquent than Eren. Great.

Eren looked back down at him, and grinning, held the brooch just where Levi needed it to be to get a better view.

The hallmark was indeed a stripe-y triangle. The best he could do to improve upon Eren’s description was to add that it was a triangle with _diagonal_ stripes.

Dr. Zoe cackled beside them. “Pretty much, huh. It isn’t much more than that, when it’s reduced to that size. Come on, boys, have a wild guess at hat it might have represented.”

“A UNICORN HORN,” Eren instantly cried out.

“How the fuck –”, Levi began.

“Ding ding ding!” Dr. Zoe sang, imitating bells on TV shows. “We have a winner! Though I have to agree with your friend, I’m kinda amazed you actually got that. History fan?”

“No, well, uh, a little, but I just… That’s what came to mind, is all.” Eren shrugged.

Levi raised an eyebrow, silently communicating to Eren that he knew he’d already come up with a whole story explaining the hallmark – and that Levi was eager to hear it.

But Dr. Zoe cut in.

“Huh, well that is correct! We are in luck, you see. If this had been a particular jeweler’s brand, it would’ve been hella complicated to determine precisely when these precious, precious babies were made. You know, hallmarks lasting through generations, that sort of thing. But this!”, they cried, grabbing back the brooch, “This is the mark of a monarch!”

Levi noted with carefully concealed amusement that Eren was leaning in to catch every word, despite the fact that the expert was standing less than half a foot away from him, and speaking in what most decidedly wasn’t an indoor voice.

Luckily for Eren’s patience levels, Dr. Zoe never seemed to consider heightening suspense by withholding information for even a second longer than was strictly necessary. As soon as they caught their breath, they continued.

“This!” _Yep, they definitely do prefer depending on volume rather than tempo for dramatic effect_ , Levi thought as he flinched, “This was the symbol imposed on all jewelers by the Reiss dynasty. During their first reign, of course.”

Eren nodded along. At least one of them knew what the expert was on about.

“As you surely know -,” _or not_ , “- the Reiss family rose very quickly, but fell even faster. So you can pretty safely say,” they announced, spreading their arms wide in excitement, excitement perfectly mirrored in Eren’s eyes, “that all of these lovelies were made for the Reiss Court – seven hundred to six hundred and fifty years ago!”

Eren was buzzing next to him, Levi didn’t need to look to confirm. It came as no surprise when Eren started rambling, voice volumes soaring.

“That… that’s so amazing! Seven hundred years old? A royal Court?” His expression went from pure joy to awe and back again. “Levi, can you believe all they could find out just by studying our treasure for two weeks? It’s incredible!”

Levi was too busy trying to believe just how brightly Eren could shine when he was this thrilled. Luckily, no answer was asked of him. Eren was gathering his thoughts.

“Uhm, so, we have a clear idea of when these were made, but… is it possible at all to figure out how they ended up in the river?”

Dr. Zoe chuckled. “Well, you can certainly try and guess. Let me help you.” They rubbed their hands together.

Levi wondered whether it was a habit of theirs, or if it was in anticipation. They seemed to have good enough instincts to tell that Eren was going to come up with something good.

Because he certainly was going to. He was the best at that.

“It’s well known that the first Reiss monarchy ended in a revolution. They’d milked the country dry, everyone was starving, they were broke, the usual.” They waved their hands dismissively. “Bear in mind, you don’t empty a country’s treasury in a day. Nor does a people unite against all they’ve ever known in a day. People take a while to build up their hatred.” They grinned at the way Eren furrowed his brows, concentrating.

“Yeah, it’s no secret the first Reiss rule was incredibly unpopular,” Eren said, as much to himself as to the other two in the room.

Dr. Zoe’s grin widened. “So, you’d be willing to believe that a wealthy merchant’s wagon, or some noble’s carriage headed to Sina with riches for the royal family might have been attacked? I haven’t checked, but I would suppose that stream of yours was already there at the time. Might have even actually been a river back then,” they concluded with a wink.

The joke went right over Eren’s head, as he was too caught up recreating the scene in that hyper-active brain of his.

“Yeah! And maybe there wasn’t much of a forest along the river back then! So maybe it was common to travel along it? Or, at least, some spots could’ve made great resting spots. But wait, uhm, I know the potential attackers were angry, but… I mean, if I were them, I’d steal the jewelry, rather than chuck it all in the river?” It was cute, the way Eren’s voice lilted up into a question at the end, as if he needed reassurance about what he would do, had he been a violent rebel.

 _It was **what**_?

Dr Zoe squealed, visibly delighted. “Ooh, aren’t you the perfect little historian! I like the way you think.”

Eren beamed.

“Mhm,” Dr. Zoe carried on, “Yeah they probably would’ve tried to keep whatever they could get their hands on. I’m presuming they did, most of the time. But we gotta be creative here.”

They’d picked up a different piece, a pendant, by the looks of it, and were turning it round and round in one hand.

“It’s not impossible that, finding themselves surrounded on land, one person in the carriage would’ve grabbed some gold, and attempted to make a run for it across the river. Where they were either caught and stabbed to death; or the river was deeper than we think, and they drowned.” They paced around the cramped room.

Levi grimaced, Eren frowned, and Dr. Zoe shrugged.

“Natural selection,” was all they added.

Levi glared at them, but Eren’s spaced-out voice cut in before he could comment.

“Doctor that… that’s… wow, oh my gosh, this is so _great_! All that history in these small pieces!” His eyes were shining brighter than any of the stones laid out before him, and a large grin split across his face.

Levi turned back to their expert as they chuckled lowly, and slid their glasses back down. Levi swore it was too cliché to be true, but no, light definitely did flash across their glasses as they looked back up. When they spoke, it was with far more calm and solemnity than Levi had heard from them yet.

“Say, Eren… If you enjoyed hearing about all this so much, don’t you think more people would enjoy it too? It’d be wonderful if they could. Wouldn’t you love to help me share this piece of history?”

Levi and Eren glanced at each other, simultaneously intrigued and worried by the expert’s change in demeanor. Their silent conversation was cut short by the door brutally slamming open.

“Oh no, you don’t, Hange!” Petra appeared, hands on hips.

_Did she just kick the ten-ton door open?_

“You have to stop trying to trick people into making gifts to the museum! Christ, how are we still not in trouble?” Petra sighed, rubbing her fingers against her temple.

“Because you’re so good at your job?” Dr. Zoe smiled ruefully.

Petra swiftly crossed the room, reaching her own space and taking out new forms from a different drawer. Her smile was dangerous as she turned back around.

“Hell yeah, I am.” her eyes locked onto Eren and Levi.

“Boys…”

They snapped to attention, even as Petra’s smile fell back into her sweet and welcoming expression.

“Would it be possible for us to discuss what shall become of these valuables now?”

~~

While her methods were more direct and involved more legal explanations, Petra’s objective was exactly the same Dr. Zoe’s.

Levi couldn’t blame them for trying so hard to convince them to donate their findings to the museum. As interesting as it was, he’d seen no one else in the building, it would not have benefitted them much to rent from Eren, or to have the expertise paid off and nothing left. And so, Petra had clearly prepared to take all the time she’d need to get that donation.

To her credit, Petra did remind Eren and Levi of their other options. But that proved wholly unnecessary, as Eren’s mind was already made up.

Petra guided them quickly through the paperwork (Levi supposed there really wasn’t such a thing as a ‘simple’ option).

Levi was taken by surprise, however, when Eren decided to speak up to impose one condition on the donation.

Eren set his most determined gaze on the professionals, and declared he’d be happy to leave the collection with the museum – as long as he got to write the explanatory note that would describe it. Dr. Zoe was absolutely delighted, and Petra seemed impressed enough. They had no objections. It was agreed Eren would draft the history of the objects as determined by Dr. Zoe, explaining how those conclusions were drawn, exactly as the expert had just done for them. After an approval on Dr. Zoe’s part (“ _And mine,_ ” Petra had been quick to emphasize), Eren would have his notes presented alongside his findings.

His story, to go with his treasure.

~~

Eren and Levi stepped out of the museum, glass doors left swinging behind them. The midday sun was glaring, and the contrast with the inside of the dark museum was jarring, but Levi had to squint no harder at their general surroundings than he had to at Eren alone.

And he couldn’t help but watch him, as he bounced along towards the car.

Eren was positively radiant after their meeting with Dr. Zoe. He was all fired up with his mission to write an introduction to his collection. As closest to literally as possible.

He was vibrating with overflowing energy from head to toe, flashing smiles at everyone they walked by. Nothing could bring him down. Even the grumpiest passerby couldn’t resist smiling back, anger defeated by the kind light in Eren’s eyes.

Those eyes. Levi had been finding them harder and harder to meet lately, despite them being unquestionably rooted in his daily life. Shades of green he could get lost in, like the forest they used to run through every day. Lighter specs of both paler and brighter tones, like the water they’d jump through on warmer days. A special gleam, a shimmer, when Eren got particularly involved in a story he was retelling, no, re _living_ , like the starry skies he’d wave goodbye to Levi under, night after night.

They were _fucking gorgeous_.

And they had come to mean all too much to Levi. Every thought of them betrayed just how deeply they were tied to everything he knew, everything he loved.

Everything about those eyes, their expressions, all of it was so comforting and familiar; and they knew him equally in return. And so, afraid to give himself away, he’d begun to run from them. He was a coward.

A coward who was going to pay, because now that Eren was shining brighter than the damn summer sun, he could no longer look away, and he really should have thought about building up immunity.

 _Eren_ was fucking gorgeous, in his entirely.

And Levi was drawn to him like a helpless moth. _Poetic._

At least, for now, it got him back to the car safely. Too caught up in his own head, he’d noticed nothing on the way back, except how jubilant Eren was and how strange it was making him feel. He’d followed Eren blindly. _Stupid. Stupid stupid stu-_

“That was – wow, Levi, that was unbelievable! Amazing!” Eren’s crowing cut off his inward chastising.

His grin was so wide Levi thought it must’ve hurt.

“Ah, can you believe it? I’m gonna get the chance to draft up the story of events that really happened, well, probably, and people are gonna read it! I’m actually gonna share a bit of Trost’s history with its people!” He was struggling to grab his keys as he skipped around.

Levi couldn’t push down the smile curving his lips. “Yeah, of course I can believe it.”

Eren froze.

Levi panicked. _I said something weird, didn’t I? I should’ve made a joke why the hell did I have to answer so seriously what have I done –_

“Oh, um, yeah, I mean, thanks!” Eren quickly turned away, having finally succeeded in getting a good grasp on his keys.

Had the sun burned the back of Eren’s neck? Strange, they’d had a shitty summer until recently, weather-wise. Maybe it was all the museum fun and excitement.

Unless… It was unlikely and _stupid_ , but he’d put the blame on Eren’s contagious giddiness later.

“You always tell stories really well… Petra and Dr. Zoe don’t know how lucky they are yet. Lucky because, uhm. Lucky to have you write something for their museum,” Levi pressed on.

Tension crept up into Eren’s shoulders, which Levi took as his queue to _shut up_ before he embarrassed himself any more.

“I… thanks. I’m glad you’ve… I’m glad you think so.” Eren followed his reply up with a nervous chuckle.

He was adorable when flustered. Thoughts of shutting up had never flown out the window so quickly.

Levi opened his mouth to mention how perfect Eren’s draft was definitely going to be, when Eren, having at long last succeeded at flinging his car door open, jumped back with a yelp.

“Hot!”, he screamed. “Ugh it’s like an oven in there. It’s not even that warm out, as if anyone would think to park in the shade.” He threw his arms up dramatically, asking the sun itself, “ _Why?_ ”.

 _You didn’t even think to pay for parking, dumbass_ , Levi thought, but only sighed wordlessly, moving around to open the other three doors of the car.

“Might as well try and cool it down before we get in,” he shrugged in response to Eren’s frown.

Eren nodded, and walked over to lean against the car’s trunk. After deciding the trunk could stay closed, Levi went to settle next to him.

There was a moment of silence.

Levi was convinced Eren would break it first, too hyped up to wait around quietly. Astonished when nothing came, he turned to face his friend, still leaning on the car.

Eren fidgeted. Did he think he’d annoy Levi if he went on and on about how thrilled he was about this writing task? That wouldn’t do. He’d have to speak first then, to give Eren a chance to say something if he wanted to.

And honestly, Eren’s voice, especially when he was in such an exultant mood, filled him with joy.

“Hey, Eren?”

Eren looked up, wide-eyed, and shuffled around, to face him too. Levi had to drop his gaze to prevent himself from blurting out something ridiculous, like how adorable Eren looked.

“So that was quite an… adventure, wasn’t it? Or was it more like something else? A quest? A mystery to solve?” Why was he somehow managing to stumble over the most basic concepts, all of a sudden? So much for going for a casual tone. He could hear a slight trembling to his own voice.

He’d lowered said voice as he hesitated. Glancing back up, he found that Eren had leaned in, as if Levi had been so quiet, that was necessary to catch his every word. His face was right before Levi’s eyes, so close, he could count the light freckles that dusted Eren’s cheekbones in the summer.

Eren only smiled softly, and murmured, “Not quite a fairytale though.”

Despite the proximity slowly causing his mind to cloud up, Levi couldn’t forget how Eren favored the genre. A corner of his lip tugged up, in what probably looked like a smirk.

“Shame,” he huffed in weak laughter.

Laughter that was cut short when Eren’s eyes flicked down to his lips, and he felt his heartbeat thunder in his chest.

Eren was going to think he was laughing at him. But it was all _his fault_ if he couldn’t stop smiling around him, oh no –

“I… would’ve liked that,” Eren breathed, even closer, too close.

“M-maybe…” Levi tripped over his own words, whispering, afraid to shatter the delicate atmosphere that had descended upon them, “Maybe we can… we could still make it one.”

He had no idea what he’d meant by that, or if that even meant anything at all, but he forced himself to keep his gaze level. Even though the intensity met in Eren’s eyes was causing his brain to shut down.

For a split second, surprise flitted over Eren’s gentle features. Then it was gone, replaced by Eren’s most determined gaze, flashing before Levi, strong, mixed with something he didn’t recognize.

This frustrated Levi, how could there be an unfamiliar look on Eren’s face, and he tilted his jaw up in defiance, hoping to get a better glance at those eyes and figure it out.

But before he could look twice, those sparkling green eyes vanished from sight, as Eren slipped them closed, and leaned in further.

Levi was still wondering what that look had meant as Eren’s lips met his.

Levi’s eyes flew wide open, as Eren pressed in gently, tentatively cupping Levi’s face in one hand.

Levi had gone completely still. Stiff, even.

He’d forgotten how to breathe. In fact, he’d forgotten most everything, bar one thought.

 _Warm_.

Not warm like the summer weather they weren’t getting this year. Not uncomfortable heat.

The warmth of a fireplace after a day in the snow. The warmth of the oven with a homemade-meal inside after a long day out. The warmth of hot water in the shower before the security and softness of one’s own bed.

Warmth he’d come back to, time and time again.

Eren’s lips were warm against his, dry but not chapped. His thumb stroked across Levi’s cheekbone gently, leaving trails of overheated skin on top of the brightly flushed cheek the rest of his palm was covering.

Slowly, carefully, the tension that had suddenly crept up on him seeped out of his shoulders, and Levi let his hands come up to cling to Eren’s shirt, in front of him.

He could feel Eren smile against his lips. That brush of a smile felt good.

He didn’t want it to stop.

Tilting his head to the side, he stepped in closer. The dry but smooth pressure against his lips was replaced with a warmer and humid press. As he timidly parted his lips, his hands travelled up to stroke Eren’s neck gently, too hesitant to grip any more firmly.

Eren’s breath hitched, and he pulled away, blinking wildly.

Levi chased after him without thinking, but Eren lifted his other hand, now cradling Levi’s face on both sides, and held him in place as he brought their foreheads together.

Eren’s deep sigh fluttered against Levi’s face, warm, always warm. Almost too warm, in fact – Levi was surprised he hadn’t burst into flames and combusted yet. But apparently whatever divinities watched over him wanted to see if, possibly, he could also survive Eren’s widest, most brilliant grin, at such short range.

What a dork.

But a dork worth putting up with.

Half convinced he’d float away if Eren let go of him, Levi made himself speak, an attempt to ground himself in the moment. And to make sure this wasn’t all just a dream.

“I thought a… _kiss-_ ,” he barely managed to get it out, and only did so hoarsely, “- doesn’t make a fairytale?”

Eren giggled at that. It reverberated against Levi’s forehead, and made him feel lightheaded.

“It doesn’t… But it always has been my favorite ending,” Eren said, voice hardly steadier than Levi’s.

The gaze Eren set on him was so fond, he was very thankful to have the support of the car under him. He clung to Eren ever slightly tighter, afraid his knees were going to give out.

“Though,” Eren’s voice quieted, floating just between the two of them, velvet soft, “I don’t suppose…” He pulled away then, blushing loudly, running a hand through his hair. “This doesn’t really qualify as an _ending_ , anyway.” He peered up shyly at Levi through his lashes.

No. It certainly did not.

Nothing Levi could have done would have prevented a smile from reaching his eyes.

As he caught Eren’s cheeky glance, everything he’d felt, everything he’d viciously ignored over the past few weeks, came bubbling up to the surface, filling his chest with joy.

And with something much stronger than joy, at the sight of his best friend who was absolutely perfect, beautiful inside and out. At the thought that maybe, said best friend could find it in him to look at Levi the same way he looked at Eren.

Could love him as much as Levi did Eren.

 

Ah. So that was what it was.

Finally, he could put a name to the feelings buried within him.

“Come on, Levi, let’s go home.”

 

And they were definitely worth more than buried treasure.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so bad with this, but DRIVE SAFELY, respect speed limits!!!  
> Also I admit, gold can sometimes be mixed with metals other than silver or copper, but that's still pretty rare.  
> And again, I spared you a whole bunch of paperwork detail :'D
> 
> Thanks again to the minibang mods, special shout-out @nayawata, who encouraged me to join in the first place, and without whom I never would've written so many words this summer ^^
> 
> And thank YOU so much for reading! <33

**Author's Note:**

> Always drive safely, kids.
> 
> Thank you for reading, a new chapter will come with each day of the minibang ^3^
> 
> Talk to me @raindrop-rouge on tumblr n_n


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